DEBUNKING THE BIOMASS MYTH

Woody Biomass Energy Is Dirty Energy 

Biomass energy is made by burning living things like trees, crop residues, and other “woody biomass” to produce electricity. Like fossil fuels, biomass energy releases loads of planet-heating carbon dioxide and health-harming air pollution. But the biomass industry and its enablers keep promoting it as “clean” — when it’s anything but. Don’t get fooled. It’s easy as P-I-E to understand why biomass energy is a bad idea. 

Biomass energy is …

• Polluting, emitting climate and air pollution that worsens the climate crisis and harms frontline communities. 
• Ineffective for protecting people during wildfires or reducing wildfire emissions. 
• Expensive and dependent on subsidies that take resources away from real climate solutions like clean solar and wind. 

Polluting

Polluting for the Climate

Biomass energy is climate-polluting across its life cycle. In fact, per unit of energy produced, burning woody biomass for electricity releases more CO2 at the smokestack than coal. Trucking and processing trees to be burned releases significant emissions. And cutting down trees terminates their ability to store and draw down carbon from the atmosphere, reducing forest carbon storage.

It’s very clear that biomass energy isn’t carbon neutral, as the industry claims. Burning trees and other woody materials for energy leads to a net increase of carbon in the atmosphere for decades — and even centuries — to come.  

Polluting for Communities

Biomass power plants are among the largest emitters of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide, in addition to releasing carcinogens and heavy metals, harming the health of neighboring communities. Biomass power plants are often concentrated in communities of color and low-income communities already suffering from high pollution burdens, worsening environmental injustice.   

Ineffective

Biomass proponents often incorrectly claim that cutting trees will reduce wildfire emissions and protect communities from wildfires. But actually broad-scale forest “thinning” releases more carbon emissions than it prevents from being released in wildfire, leading to a net increase in climate pollution. And the most effective way to protect communities from wildfire is investing in proven home fire-safety retrofits or “home hardening” and trimming vegetation in the zone immediately surrounding structures — not logging forests. 

Expensive

Biomass power is expensive, and it’s being propped up by incentives and subsidies paid for by the public. Biomass subsidies take resources that would be better spent on cheaper and truly clean solar and wind energy and the jobs they create. 

Emerging Biomass False Solutions

New Ways to Harm the Climate, Communities, and Forests 

Woody biomass energy is undeniably dirty. So the biomass industry and its allies are pushing for new ways to use biomass, claiming these projects are clean. But they’re far from it. These false solutions come with the same old problems — and add new dangers. 

• Biomass Energy With Carbon Capture and Storage, aka BECCS: BECCS boosters promote adding carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment to biomass power plants to capture some CO2 from industrial smokestacks. Adding CCS to biomass facilities would still result in significant climate and air pollution and threaten public health and safety, given CCS has proven to be ineffective, unsafe, energy intensive, and expensive. And contrary to industry claims, BECCS projects are neither carbon neutral nor carbon negative.  

• Gasification and Pyrolysis:  Instead of burning biomass, gasification and pyrolysis are industrial processes that heat biomass to high temperatures with a controlled oxygen input to convert it into gases, liquids, and solids to be used for electricity, hydrogen, or fuels production. But as with combustion, the main products are climate and air pollutants — like CO2 and particulate matter — that worsen the climate crisis and threaten public health. 

• Hydrogen From Biomass: Hydrogen made by using trees and other woody biomass as a feedstock or energy source is dirty hydrogen, even if some try to call it green. Gasification of woody biomass to make hydrogen releases huge amounts of planet-heating CO2 and toxic air pollutants.  To the extent hydrogen is made at all, it should be produced in the cleanest way possible, which is by splitting water using 100% solar or wind energy. 

• Wood Pellet Expansion: The wood pellet industry is logging forests in the United States to make wood pellets to be burned in polluting power plants abroad. This industry — that targets environmental justice communities and is already devastating forests in the U.S. Southeast — is trying get a foothold in California. Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR for short) is pushing to build two of the country's largest wood pellet mills in California. The organization aims to turn forests into pellets, store the fire-and explosion-prone pellets at Port of Stockton in an overburdened community, and then ship pellets overseas to be burned. This senseless project would be disastrous for the climate, public health, forests, and environmental injustice.  

Check out our factsheet about these biomass false solutions, and download our Forest Biomass Briefing Book to learn even more and spread the word. 

You can also explore our interactive map of biomass projects in California to see existing and emerging threats.

 

Our Campaign 

Since 2010, the Center for Biological Diversity has been at the forefront of fighting biomass energy in California.

We bring our legal, scientific, and organizing expertise to oppose woody biomass energy — including the growing threats from biomass false solutions: gasification and pyrolysis, biomass with carbon capture, and hydrogen made from biomass.  

Our work focuses on ending woody biomass energy and biomass false solutions in California. Although the state is seen as a green leader, its policy enables this dirty industry, propping up 23 active biomass power plants, many of which are in low-income communities of color in the Central Valley. And the biomass industry is lobbying hard for more state subsidies to fund its false solutions.  

We work with frontline communities and local and national partners to end dirty biomass projects with a three-pronged approach: 

• Stopping new biomass projects — including power plants, biomass carbon capture, biomass-to-hydrogen, and wood pellet projects. Through litigation and policy advocacy, we’ve been successful in preventing the expansion of biomass power plants in California. Alongside our partners we’ve helped stall two biomass carbon capture projects slated for the Central Valley and are working hard to stop the disastrous GSNR wood pellet project. 

• Ending state mandates and subsidies that prop up biomass energy, instead requiring the state to fully account for climate and air pollution from biomass facilities. We petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission to end loopholes and subsidies for biomass power plants, played a leading role in the commission’s technical working group to advocate for accurate emissions accounting for biomass energy, and worked with state legislators and agency decisionmakers to make sure that biomass-to-hydrogen and biomass carbon capture projects don’t get counted as clean. 

• Educating the public and policymakers about this false solution. For more than a decade, we’ve done extensive outreach to state legislators, agency decisionmakers, and the public on the harms of biomass energy and the need to transition to clean alternatives. 

We advocate for science-and-justice-based policies that protect the climate, communities, and forest ecosystems, including policies that … 

• Direct investments to truly clean renewable solar and wind energy, energy storage, and efficiency — not dirty biomass energy. 
• Increase forest protections from deforestation and degradation to keep carbon stored in forest ecosystems as an essential climate solution. 
• Focus wildfire policies and investments on proven approaches to community wildfire safety: home hardening, air filters, and defensible space work immediately around home, prioritizing investments in disadvantaged communities. 

Check out our press releases to learn more about the Center’s actions fighting biomass.