Biofuels Firms Buy Up African Land, Cause Deforestation, Food Output Loss
Biofuels companies from the U.K. to Brazil and China are buying up large swaths of Africa, causing deforestation and diverting land from food to fuel production, the environmental group Friends of the Earth said.
On Thursday the province announced it has directed Ontario Power Authority to negotiate an agreement with Ontario Power Generation, the plant’s owners, to buy the power produced at the Atikokan plant.
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan) said with the plant making up 40 per cent of Atikokan’s municipal tax base, the province’s decision to keep it open means the town’s survival.
Beijing has worked out a plan to invest up to 20 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in the next decade on forestation and develop alternative energies.
Wu Jian, a senior engineer with the State Forestry Administration, said at a news conference that the trees will fight climate change by absorbing carbon and will produce material for bio-diesel and ethanol fuels by 2020.
The plan aims to have 23 percent of the country covered with forests in 10 years, up 3 percent increase from the current level.
Dow Corning’s Midland Manufacturing Site Considering Biomass Plant
MIDLAND, Mich. -- Dow Corning’s Midland manufacturing site is considering the installation of a biomass-powered energy facility to provide a renewable, reliable and cost-effective supply of steam and electricity necessary for the site’s operations.
Cirque Energy, LLC, which would build, own and operate the plant for Dow Corning, recently filed for appropriate environmental permits with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment, which is the first step in the process of installing the facility.
Ministry of Industry of the Omsk region is to produce bio fuel from lignum fossil and woodworking wastes. The project is to be realized in cooperation with LLC Proryv-Invest.
The company that wants to build a controversial wood-burning power plant near Shelton has signed a fuel-supply contract with Mason County’s largest private timberland owner – Green Diamond Resource Co.
Terms of the contract were not disclosed, but Adage spokesman Tom DePonty said the agreement should provide about 20 percent of the 604,000 tons of wood debris the company needs to power its plant each year.
It is the first fuel-supply contract signed by Adage and a forest landowner for the $250 million project.
A regulatory hearing on Nova Scotia Power Inc.’s application to build a $208-million biomass energy project in Port Hawkesbury has been put on hold pending a review of other renewable energy projects.
The decision was reached Thursday after testimony from John Antonuk of Liberty Consulting Group in Pennsylvania at the provincial Utility and Review Board.
Soot is second leading cause of climate change: study
A new U.S. study probing the role of soot emissions in driving global climate change highlights the severe impact that black carbon in the air and dirty snow on the Earth’s surface have in melting Canada’s Arctic sea ice.