I've never liked the idea of…

I've never liked the idea of burning (anything) to make electricity. There is nothing clean about burning. Period! I am against any expansion of the biomass industry. In fact, given the amount of greenwashing that occurs, the real truth is, more whole trees from primary, boreal forests are being logged to meet the demands of this growing industry. Increasing deforestation is NOT a climate solution. Protecting our boreal forests should be a national (even international) priority.

At the smokestack, burning wood pellets is much dirtier than coal. I don't see how an industry that dumps more carbon into the atmosphere than what it's replacing could possibly be conceived as a solution for providing alternative employment for fossil fuel workers. This is unsustainable and illogical as far as I'm concerned. Please stop any notion of expanding the biomass industry at all. Deforestation is not the answer to any industry, including biomass and toilet paper! Cutting down forests seems to be a worldwide 'epidemic'. It takes many, many decades to replace these lost trees, tree planting rates are abysmal and boreal forests are irreplaceable. The U.S. is an example of the pellet industry gone awry and magnifies Canada's own need to correct the erroneous claims and damage this industry has done to our planet and our lives.
Federally, I feel for every tree that is cut or lost, at least 2 should be planted in it place, for every industry, everywhere! This doesn't mean that I agree with deforestation or with the biomass industry. The biomass industry should be scaled back. Dead trees are home to many species of animals, birds, insects and microorganisms. Leaving them in place is a good idea generally.
Thank you.