Stop expanding the wood…

Stop expanding the wood pellet industry – it’s a false climate solution that is dirtier than coal at the smokestack.

This draft claims to use wood that is leftover from logging processes, but the forest biomass industry cuts down whole logs to meet the demands. In this time of a climate crisis, cutting down forests to create “clean” electricity is entirely counter productive, as it will increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and remove a carbon sink.

Objective 3 - reducing regulatory burden for all sectors which use forest biomass - is particularly disturbing, as it is proposed to reduce government oversight in an industry that is contributing to mass deforestation. We need to be protecting our forests, and governments need to be the ones regulating companies in this regard.

The idea that forest pellets are a renewable form of energy is entirely false. It can take generations for forests to regain their carbon capture potential, time that we just do not have. Carbon capture is going to be a huge expense in the future. It will be SO much cheaper to leave our carbon capturing forests alone, as opposed to building carbon capturing infrastructure later.

Please, think of generations of the future. Listen to the science that the wood pellet industry is not the energy source that we need. We need in tact forests that capture carbon from the air, and also provide safe refuges for so many types of animals, let alone tourist destinations.