Ontario is already home to…

Ontario is already home to North America’s largest forest biomass-only electricity generating station. They claim that the province is a leader in the emerging green economy because of the ‘clean electricity’ produced from wood pellets, but we know that burning wood pellets is dirtier than coal at the smokestack. The Ontario government is using that as a key point to justify expanding the industry. They are intentionally deceiving the public to generate higher demand and open up new market pathways.

The Ontario government is also largely selling the forest biomass industry as a circular economy because they claim that it only uses “mill by-products”, i.e., waste wood, to manufacture wood pellets. However, many Canadian provinces including Ontario are logging whole trees from primary forests to meet the growing demand for wood pellets. One of the key objectives (objective 3) of this action plan includes, “streamline permitting and reduce regulatory burden for all sectors which use forest biomass,” which is concerning, because this means there would be fewer environmental checkpoints. Ontario has already gutted the Endangered Species Act, which is a key regulatory body.

The argument to expand the forest-biomass industry, particularly the wood pellet sector, to provide low-carbon jobs in replacement of fossil fuel jobs isn’t valid. Amidst an ever growing climate crisis, we simply can’t afford to keep chopping down forests to make a fuel that emits immense amounts of carbon dioxide. Moreover, it can take centuries for forests to regain the majority of their carbon storage after being logged. Once again, wood pellets are a false climate solution.