Biomass doesn’t belong in new provincial energy policy: EAC
Posted Apr 27, 2010 05:22:24 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Dexter government’s new energy policy, unveiled last week is getting accolades from one of Nova Scotia’s largest environmental groups – mostly.
The Ecology Action Centre has no problem with the government’s goal to get 40 per cent of the province’s energy from green sources by 2020, but it doesn’t like the plans to include industrial biomass.
Premier Dexter calls the 40 per cent goal the most aggressive plan of any province.
Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre likes the sound of more wind and solar energy and gives the government full marks.
“If we’re still relying on coal and fossil fuels and oil ten years from now we’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” he said.
According to Butler the government has made one critical misstep – relying on large scale forest biomass.
“This is going to mean increasing the provincial harvest by about 20 per cent,” he said. “If you drive around this province you already know what our forests are going to look like. If we up that, it’s going to mean more clear-cutting.”
Butler says small scale biomass is okay, but large industrial use will result in what the EAC calls a dark day for Nova Scotia’s forests.
