Natasha Fast (SAVE), Pastor Angela Manning (New Life Ministries), Allan Ricketts (Project Manager), Geraldine Fairell, Ken Klanicki, Brad Lofton (Executive Director), picture by John S. Quarterman (LAKE)

Pictured is a group of concerned citizens meeting about the proposed biomass plant with Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) Project Manager Allan Ricketts and Executive Director Brad Lofton. Ricketts and Lofton gave a two-hour presentation, took some action items, and have provided a schedule on which they will fulfill them. I thank them for that and look forward to the further materials.

Lying in the center of the table in the picture is this document:

Biomass carbon neutrality in the context of forest-based fuels and products
by Reid Miner, NCASI, Al Lucier, NCASI

The copy on the table is dated April 7, 2010; the online version is dated May 2010. It’s a powerpoint presentation that makes many good points, among them that coal doesn’t grow back, while trees do. So in theory it would be possible, by organizing harvesting of biomass over a region to make burning biomass for electricity carbon neutral.

The document comes right out and says:

At point of combustion, CO₂ emissions per unit of energy produced are generally higher for biomass fuels than for fossil fuels.

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