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CHAPTER 1 INTERNATIONAL AND U.S. FOREST BIOMASS ENERGY POLICIES 1.1 OVERVIEW International and U.S. domestic forest biomass energy policies form a critical backdrop to the analyses presented in this report. The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide a general understanding of (1) the development of policies that have driven the growth of the biomass energy sector; (2) the key policy instru- ments that have been relied upon to promote this development; and (3) a summary of recent discussions about the greenhouse gas (GHG) implications of forest biomass energy. The chapter is organized into two major sections. The first reviews international biomass energy policies—focusing on the historical development of these policies, discussing the policy instruments in place that promote biomass development, and summarizing recent concerns about the impact on GHG of emissions from biomass energy facilities. The second section provides a more detailed review of U.S. energy policies affecting forest biomass both at the federal and state levels, with a particular focus on policies in Massachusetts. 1.2 INTERNATIONALFORESTBIOMASSENERGY POLICIES 1.2.1 HistoricalContext The late 20th century development of forest biomass energy facilities originated from energy security concerns triggered by the 1973–1974 oil crisis. The International Energy Agency (IEA) was founded at this time primarily to address the security issue. Energy Security can be described as “the uninterrupted physical availability at a price which is affordable, while respecting environment concerns.” The need to increase “energy security” was the main objective underpinning the establishment of the IEA. With particular emphasis on oil security, the Agency was created in order to establish effective mechanisms for the implementation of policies on a broad spectrum of energy issues: mechanisms that were workable and reliable, and could be implemented on a co-operative basis (International Energy Agency, 2010). Although IEA’s original founding agreements did not explicitly address forest biomass, the agency created IEA Bioenergy in 1978 with: ...the aim of improving cooperation and information exchange between countries that have national programmes in bioenergy research, development and deployment (IEA Bioenergy, 2010). Our review of available documents suggests that prior to IEA Bioenergy’s 1998–2002 Strategic Plan (IEA Bioenergy, NA), the greenhouse gas implications of forest biomass combustion were not a primary area of research for the organization (IEA Bioenergy, 1995). Moreover, recent IEA policies have continued to reflect the view that biomass combustion is “close to carbon neutral in most instances” (International Energy Agency, 2007). In fact, from a climate change perspective, the desirability of biomass energy appears to have been the prevailing wisdom of international bioenergy policies over most of the past ten or fifteen years. These policies have generally equated burning of biomass from renewable sources with “climate friendly” outcomes. The presumption has been that as long as the harvested areas grow back as forests, the emitted CO2 emissions will be recaptured in the growing trees, resulting in lower net CO2 emissions over time across the entire energy generation sector. For example, in a 2000 study of forestry and land use, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the lead international organization charged with assessing impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, stated that: Biomass energy can be used to avoid greenhouse gas emis- sions from fossil fuels by providing equivalent energy services: electricity, transportation fuels, and heat. The avoided fossil fuel CO2 emissions of a biomass energy system are equal to the fossil fuels substituted by biomass energy services minus the fossil fuels used in the biomass energy system. These quantities can be estimated with a full fuel-cycle analysis of the system. The net effect on fossil fuel CO2 emissions is evident as a reduction in fossil fuel consumption (IPCC, 2000). In its most recent 2007 assessment, IPCC noted that: In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit. For the purpose of this discussion, the options available to reduce emissions by sources and/or to increase removals by sinks in the forest sector are grouped into four general categories (1)...(4) increasing the use of biomass-derived energy to substitute fossil fuels (IPCC, 2007). European Union policies also promote the use of forest biomass energy, as embodied in the EU’s 2006 Forest Action Plan: The EU has adopted an ambitious energy and climate policy which aims by 2020 to reduce energy consumption by 20%, with a similar cut in CO2 emissions, while raising the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 20%. More than half of the EU’s renewable energy already comes from biomass, 80% of which is wood biomass. Wood can play an important role as a provider of biomass energy to offset fossil fuel emissions, and as an environ- mentally friendly material. There has recently been higher demand for wood from the energy sector in addition to BIOMASS SUSTAINABILITY AND CARBON POLICY STUDY MANOMET CENTER FOR CONSERVATION SCIENCES 9 NATURAL CAPITAL INITIATIVEPDF Image | NATURAL CAPITAL INITIATIVE AT MANOMET
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