The biomass industry is not…

The biomass industry is not a solution to climate change when it involves cutting down trees to produce the wood pellets, as the Ontario wood pellet industry is doing. You might as well be burning coal. Deforestation is a significant cause of climate warming. We need to PROTECT and EXPAND our forests, not burn them.

Your government's claim that biomass as a solution to climate change is just another measure to deflect Ontarians' concerns about climate change, and to support and promote the forestry industry at our climate's expense. For a start, nowhere in the proposal are there any plans to prohibit the use of whole trees to produce wood pellets. In effect, your government would give the green light to forestry companies to continue and expand use of whole trees for their pellets.

Further evidence of your real motives is the proposal to deregulate those who use it: “streamline permitting and reduce regulatory burden for all sectors which use forest biomass.” In other words, indirect subsidies to companies that use wood pellets, again with no regulations on their use. A double win for the forestry industry and a win for the companies that use its products, with no benefit to anyone or anything else as whole trees are destroyed. My bet is that the biomass industry isn't viable using only waste wood. Let's see the evidence on that please.

Could your government please get serious about climate change by reducing emissions through regulation, and promoting renewables and other alternatives to fossil fuels. Or produce a proposal on wood pellets that protects our existing whole trees. No greenwashing please.

Also, how dare you require commenters to post links to support their comments. Ontarians are entitled to comment on government's proposed policies, whether or not they have expertise in that field. It's called democracy. Instead, you deliberately bias the results of this process. I have read quite a few articles over the last decade on the problems with biofuels, including biomass, without recording them. And now I've had to try and find them all again. HOW DARE YOU.