Biomass Energy

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." — Mohandas K. Ghandi

Changing the Energy Culture in Virginia means conservation, efficiency, land use changes and alternative energy production. We can no longer have fossil based fuels playing a dominant role in our energy mix.

America has thrived when we have used our own natural resources responsibly, and now our economic stability and our freedom is threatened by our dependency on foreign oil and gas and our reluctance to address climate change. In the face of peak oil, rising prices on all goods based on high transportation costs, and dwindling international goodwill based upon our military actions, it is time to return to our own resources in order to secure our future. In Virginia, because of the diversity of potential sources and the large amount of arable land we posses, PPV believes that, here, a better future can be realized through the creation of a strong biomass energy industry.

Public Policy Virginia is the one group in the Commonwealth with a focus on biomass energy. Biomass is the biodegradable fraction of products, wastes and residues from agriculture (including both vegetable and animal substances), from forestry and from related industries, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste. The term "biomass energy (or bioenergy)" encompasses both electricity generation or transportation fuel. Given the capacity of these feedstocks to regenerate, biomass energy is renewable. In addition to being a renewable energy source, other environmental benefits are:

• Waste that would have ended up in a landfill is burned for electricity instead;
• Biomass crops planted near our rivers and streams provide nutrient and waste filtering ecoservices to our watersheds;
• Many biomass crops, like switchgrass, are native plants, and, therefore, put down deep roots, hold the soil better, prevent erosion, and require fewer pesticides and manure;
• Unlike burning coal or uranium, the cycle of growing, processing and burning biomass recycles CO2 from the atmosphere. It closes the carbon cycle. If this cycle is sustained, there is little or no net gain in atmospheric CO2;
• Biomass production can work very well on a reasonably local level, allowing states and even municipalities to provide infrastructure and incentives for the industry as it fits their resources, thus contributing to the overall reduction of the carbon footprint needed to produce energy or fuel.

Biomass—from crops and forest lands, to animal and human waste, to landfill gas—has the potential to produce up to 15% percent of Virginia’s total energy use, depending on how our resources are distributed between electricity and fuel.

PPV is the executive agency for the production of Virginia’s first statewide biomass policy assessment. We will be coordinating and raising the funds to produce Virginia Renewables: A Policy Framework for Our Bioenergy Future, as a tool for policy makers and investors.

Subsections of This Issue

• Biofuels
• Biomass Power
• Our Bioenergy Future
• Virginia Biomass Energy Group
• Resources Online