Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080626
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JENNIFER JOY WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BIOMASS ENERGY
THE ENVIRONMENT can be an economic stimulus and not just a regulatory burden.After nearly eight years in senior environmental positions at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Presidents Reagan and Bush, I urge my successors in the Clinton administration to focus on the environmental and economic advantages of biomass energy.
Biomass could be the surprise fuel of the 1990s.
No other domestic energy source has the potential to substitute for so much fossil fuel in such a short time - with existing, cost-effective technology.
Biomass may be the "ugly duckling" of renewable energy. It's rice hulls and corn husks; wood wastes and sawdust; eaves and branches; trash and garbage. But burning these wastes gets rid of waste that cannot be or is not being reduced, reused or recycled.
Burning biomass is also "carbon neutral" - the emissions do not add to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have endorsed the use of biomass fuels as an environmentally acceptable energy source.
In addition, this is a renewable source of energy created domestically - adding to U.S. energy independence.
Today, approximately 160 biomass-to-energy plants burn agricultural, wood and municipal solid waste to make electricity, accounting for nearly 1 percent of domestic electricity consumption.
With today's pollution-control equipment, biomass energy is as clean as burning No. 2 fuel oil (home heating oil), is economically competitive with electricity produced by coal at costs of 4 and 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, is domestically produced, and is helping to solve our waste-disposal problems.
Biomass energy does not have large enough power-plant capacity to compete with all other energy sources for a huge share of the energy market; however, a 1992 study by a counterpart of mine at the U.S. Department of Energy found that it could account for more than 5 percent of domestic energy consumption within the next 20 years at 1991 consumption levels.
My successors at EPA, Commerce, Energy, the Department of Labor and the Council of Economic Advisers should engage in thoughtful debate to determine the proper federal role on behalf of biomass energy. These officials need to communicate with state and local officials, industry, environmental leaders, academia and the public to form the problem-solving can-do spirit that characterizes Americans.
Part of this communication involves sharing basic research, assessing the environmental and economic impacts of alternative sources for increased energy production, and factoring in the savings from solid waste disposal costs.
If long-term economic productivity is linked to the sustainability of our environment, then biomass energy has a role to play.
\ AUTHOR Jennifer Joy Wilson served as assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere under President Bush, and as assistant administrator of EPA for external affairs under President Reagan.