The EPA maneuver based on a flawed thesis – among some environmental camps – that burning crops and forest products is somehow “carbon-neutral.” Because the carbon in plants and trees were taken out of the air only recently, the theory goes, it will not add to atmospheric carbon dioxide, whereas the carbon in coal is being released after millions of years.
â€¨But carbon fixed by plants or trees can enter the soil or the food chain and may take decades or centuries to make its way back into the atmosphere.
Burning this year’s crop – or worse yet, long-living trees – only accelerates the cycle. One study published in Science two years ago found it may take 90 years to neutralize the carbon deficit created by clearing land for biofuels. On the other hand, environmental groups often argue we “can’t wait” for nuclear power plants to cut carbon emissions because they may take ten years to build.â€¨ â€¨Burning crops and trees also promises other potentially alarming effects. The ethanol craze that now consumes 30 percent of the corn crop by some estimates has been blamed for rising world food prices that set off Mexico’s “tortilla riots” in 2007 and brought down the government of Haiti. The threat of decimating the nation’s forests was what prompted Elizabethan England to substitute coal for wood in the 16th century.
â€¨Faced with a state mandate to produce 12.5 percent of its electricity with so-called “renewables,” however, Duke Energy recently announced it would dutifully substitute wood for coal at two plants in North and South Carolina. Duke quickly discovered that “wood wastes” would not provide nearly enough material and so requested permission from the North Carolina Utilities Commission to chop up whole trees for its boilers. The commission approved.
â€¨â€¨Enter the Environmental Defense Fund and the Southern Environmental Defense Center, both of whom perpetually tell the world that “renewables” are the solution to all energy problems. "The commission’s decision allows utilities to cut and burn our state’s forests, with no questions asked," said EDF wood biomass specialist Will McDow in a statement reported by the Charlotte Observer. "Giving unrestricted access to burn thousands of acres of natural forest is imprudent."
Said one perplexed energy observer, "Anybody here ever hear of nuclear energy?"