Peter Goldmark, commissioner of public lands, is off to a quick start in his effort to create a new, green industry on state lands. Goldmark, who is just beginning his second year as the leader of the state Department of Natural Resources, has been a strong supporter of biomass initiatives - turning the limbs and woody debris left over after a stand of trees is logged into new sources of energy.

The Department of Natural Resources manages 5.6 million acres of forest, range, agricultural, aquatic and commercial lands on behalf of Washington residents. About 3 million acres is state trust land that provides revenue to help pay for construction of public schools, universities and other state institutions. Generating revenue from those trust lands is a primary mission of Goldmark’s office.

A year ago, lawmakers passed House Bill 2165 which authorized the Department of Natural Resources to take the initial steps toward two biomass energy pilot projects — one in eastern Washington and another in Western Washington.

This biomass initiative may well lead to alternative energy sources and at the same time improve the environment.

Today after a logging company moves through forested property, the remaining woody debris is generally pushed into huge piles that are burned. Slash burns pollute the air and pose a serious health risk for people suffering from breathing problems. The burning is a terrible waste of natural resources.

Goldmark believes that woody debris can be put to a much better use. He says removing biomass feedstock in ecologically sustainable ways to produce energy — liquid fuels or heat and electricity — can:

• Provide income for forest landowners while improving forest health.
• Create rural jobs.
• Reduce wildfires and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Aid in the production of renewable energy.

In fact, Goldmark believes that wood biomass from forests has the potential to supply half the energy consumed by Washington residents.

That’s an exciting possibility. Just think about the potential when massive amounts of tree stumps and broken branches are transformed into electrical power or fuel for machines.

Last summer, the Department of Natural Resources invited companies to submit letters of interest to become partners in the biomass pilot projects. In a recent interview with The Olympian’s Editorial Board, Goldmark said he was encouraged by the amount of interest, the number of potential partners and the variety of energy proposals.

DNR selected four pilot projects Wednesday to turn biomass from state forestlands into clean energy and jobs.

In advance of the legislative session, Goldmark prepared a couple of bills to move to the next phase of the process — Senate Bill 6236 and House Bill 2481. The bills do not require an appropriation from the state’s financially strapped general fund. Both bills had hearings in their respective committees earlier this week.

The bills give DNR authority to maintain a list of forest biomass available on public lands. DNR can then use those inventories to limit the sale of forest biomass when it is determined that the supply in a region or watershed is depleted.

Secondly, the legislation authorizes the department to enter into forest biomass supply contracts for terms of up to five years. The legislation also would allow DNR to lease state lands for the supply of forest biomass for a term of no more than 50 years.

“The bio-energy industry is under economic stress, and this bill will make it easier for them to encourage investors,” said Goldmark. “This bill will also allow DNR another opportunity to generate revenue and help spur rural economic development.”

Goldmark also said securing reliable and predictably priced biomass feedstock supply is a major obstacle to maximizing the benefits of the emerging biomass energy economy.

But even with these legislative measures, Goldmark’s plan remains somewhat in doubt. Private landowners in the state, including Weyerhaeuser and Simpson Investment Company, have long dreamed of a day when slash from their own forests could be used to fuel their energy-intensive manufacturing plants. Unfortunately, the historic cost of slash-to-energy conversion has rendered the process largely unfeasible. Until the price of power reaches a level high enough to justify this cost, or until yet-to-be-unveiled technology lowers the cost of biomass conversion, Goldmark’s plan faces major economic hurdles.

Nevertheless, it’s exciting to think where this creative initiative might lead eventually. It has the potential to transform forest practices to be friendlier to the environment and at the same time generate much needed energy and revenue for the state of Washington.

Everyone wins.

[http://www.theolympian.com/]

NorthWestern Energy eyes turning closed Montana plant into biomass energy production site

NorthWestern Energy told state lawmakers Friday that a Frenchtown, Mont., linerboard plant soon to be shuttered by Smurfit-Stone Container could make a good location for a biomass energy production facility — but no firm plans are in place.

Northwestern Energy said entering talks about such a plan with Smurfit-Stone would be premature until that company emerges from bankruptcy.

"We have contacted Smurfit and told them we would be interested in having a conversation with them about that facility," company lobbyist John Fitzpatrick told the legislative Environmental Quality Council.

But getting the plant would just be the first of many big issues to deal with, he said.

A biomass plant would burn wood to make electricity using a conventional boiler system. It would be used as a source of primary power for NorthWestern, and would not be suitable as "firming" power for other alternative energy sources like solar and wind, Fitzpatrick testified.

Fitzpatrick said the U.S. Forest Service would have to allow a lot more logging of beetle killed trees in order to ensure enough fuel to keep a large plant running. NorthWestern estimates that as much as 4,000 acres a year would be needed to supply such a facility.

"Something is going to have to happen with this process so you can get quantity for fuel supply," he told the legislative oversight panel. "They are not doing a tremendous amount of logging at this time."

Other types of fuel, such as agriculture waste, would not work because the transportation costs would be too high, he said.

But he told the EQC that NorthWestern plans to pursue the idea as a way to get another sizable power plant in the state.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has said that wood that would have gone to Smurfit's pulp mill could be used as an energy source.

Tester is trying to advance a plan to mandate a lot more logging in Montana, and a lot more cutting of beetle-killed trees. It is touted as a careful compromise between the logging industry which would get the trees and environmentalists who would secure more declared wilderness area with the deal.

Smurfit-Stone Container's pending closure of the plant, which employs 417, will be phased in over the rest of the month.

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. first announced on Dec. 14 that it was closing the Frenchtown plant as the company sought to cut costs and emerge from bankruptcy protection.

[http://abcnews.go.com]

The United States Energy Department, concerned about earthquake risk, will impose new safeguards on geothermal energy projects that drill deep into the Earth’s crust.

The new policy is being instituted after a project in California that used the new technology was shut down by technical problems and encountered community opposition, federal documents indicate.

The project, by Seattle-based AltaRock Energy, would have fractured bedrock and extracted heat by digging more than two miles beneath the surface at a spot called the Geysers, about 100 miles north of San Francisco. The company ran into serious problems with its drilling and faced accusations from scientists and local residents that it had not been forthcoming enough about the earthquake risk. AltaRock denied those accusations.

The documents, provided to The New York Times by the Energy Department, indicate that the Geysers project has run through $6 million in federal financing in several unsuccessful efforts to drill to the necessary depth. As a result, the Energy Department “considers the project in the Geysers to be concluded,” according to a letter addressed to Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat and chairman of the House committee on Energy and Commerce.

The letter, dated Dec. 30, is signed by Cathy Zoi, an assistant energy secretary. The Times reported in early December that AltaRock had removed its drill rig from the site and informed the department that the project would be abandoned, but the company had refused to comment publicly.

In a second document dated Sept. 11, 2009, but not previously disclosed, the department concluded that earthquakes that would have been set off by the AltaRock project would “not have a significant impact on the human environment.” And in another endorsement of the company, the department later awarded AltaRock $25 million to try a similar project at the Newberry Volcanic Monument near Bend, Ore.

The Oregon project was one of 123 geothermal projects in 38 states that received $338 million through the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package, Ms. Zoi said in the letter.

Two seismic experts who read the documents said the message about the perils and potential of geothermal energy was unclear. But Ernie Majer, a seismologist and deputy director of the Earth Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said that the new standards were a welcome development. The letters show that the department “is being ultra-careful about any induced seismicity,” he said, referring to earthquakes triggered by humans.

Among the new safeguards are requirements that projects monitor ground-motion sensors and other data and have an approved plan to shut down if earthquakes induced by the drilling are too powerful. Companies must also file estimates of expected earthquake activity and submit project proposals to outside experts for a review of the risks and the likelihood of success.

Ms. Zoi conceded in her letter that the department’s findings were “likely to have little practical effect on the AltaRock project at the Geysers,” because the project apparently no longer exists. But she said that the defunct project and the findings “have provided valuable lessons.”

In a statement responding to questions on the documents, Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the department, said that those lessons “will help the United States succeed in safely harnessing geothermal energy.”

Donald O’Shei, AltaRock’s chief executive, said in an e-mail message that the company was pleased by the department’s finding that the Geysers project would not have had a significant impact on people in the area.

Regarding the Oregon project, Mr. O’Shei said that the company was “working on an initial planning process for the technical, permitting, and community education and outreach aspects of the project.”

Mr. O’Shei added, “Bend is located approximately 22 miles away from the demonstration site, which is in a sparsely populated area to the west of Newberry in central Oregon.”

[http://www.nytimes.com/]