Vol. X No. 3
May /June 2016
Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com
Attention Readers !
Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, please check out these leading companies advertised in this issue: Bagging / Wrapping Systems
NEWS
Burning Issues Continue Over Wood As Energy Source
Amadas Industries – pg 21 Hamer-Fischbein– pg 11 PremierTech Chronos – pg 23
Buildings & covers ClearSpan – pg 5
Compost Equipment/spreaders Ecolawn Applicator – pg 16 Farmer Automatic – pg 12 HCL Machine Works – pg 16
dust & odor control Buffalo Turbine – pg 22
food waste depackaging systems Scott Equipment – pg 18
Mulch Coloring Equipment/ Colorants AgriCoatings – pg 13 Amerimulch – pg 14 BASF / Colorbiotics – pg 17 CMC – pg 8 Earth Shades – pg 10
Shredders, Grinders, Chippers & Screening Systems Diamond Z – pg 7 Ecoverse – pg 12 HogZilla – pg 4 Komptech Americas – pg 24 Morbark Inc – pg 2 Peterson – pg 15 Premier Tech Chronos – pg 23 Rotochopper Inc – pg 9 Sundance Grinders – pg 16 West Salem Machinery – pg 10
Trommel Brushes
Duff Brush – pg 16 United Rotary Brush Corp – pg 16
TRUCKS & TRAILERS Trinity Trailer – pg 19
Wear Parts
ArmorHog – pg 14 King Kong Tools – pg 5
N
By P.J. Heller
ew battle lines are being drawn in both the United States and Europe over the contentious issue of whether emissions from power plants burning wood pellets to produce energy are carbon-neutral or if they are actually generating more carbon emissions than if the plants were burning only coal. The outcome could have major implications for the mulch industry in the U.S., which although a small player in the forest residuals market, has been impacted by the huge demand for wood pellets, particularly from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe. Among the latest developments in the skirmish: ➤ The Securities and Exchange Commission is asked by nearly three dozen pension and investment funds to more closely monitor companies’ climate benefit claims, and establish and enforce clear guidelines applicable to companies that may be claiming climate benefits. ➤ European leaders begin considering new policies and guidelines for the use of wood energy. ➤ Belgium pulls the plug on plans to subsidize what it said would be the world’s largest wood chip-biomass fired power plant, effectively killing plans for its construction. ➤ The U.S. Senate passes the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 which includes an amendment that encourages the burning
of wood pellets to create energy and which describes the practice as carbon-neutral. A letter opposing the amendment is signed by 60 top U.S. climate scientists. “Legislating scientific facts is never a good idea, but is especially bad when the ‘facts’ are incorrect,” the letter says. Another letter from more than 75 environmental and community groups urged the Senate to reject the entire bill due to the biomass amendment. ➤ The New York Times, the Washington Post and the MIT Technology Review rail against the Senate amendment that would list biomass as a renewable energy resource because of its so-called carbon-neutrality. “This is a rank example of Congress legislating science rather than allowing agency experts to make determinations based on facts, and the results could be very bad for the environment,” the Post said. MIT Technology Review called the amendment “junk science.” One of the latest shots that was fired came from the 34 pension and investment funds, who asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate what they said were misleading statements made by the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer concerning emissions and environmental impacts when it prepared to go public in 2015 on the New York Stock Exchange. Continued on page 3