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Sustainable Energy

Biomass power plants burn organic waste materials like agricultural residues and excess forest fuels to produce electricity. One bone-dry ton of wood chips, for instance, can power 1,000 homes for an hour. Biomass energy releases no more carbon than simple organic decay, so it is clean energy. Forests and orchards keep growing, so biomass is renewable.

Studies by the U.S. Government have found the country’s combined forest and agriculture land resources have the potential to sustainably supply more than one-third of its current petroleum consumption. The California Energy Commission estimates that California could sustainably utilize three times more biomass for energy annually than it does today.

Forest management can reduce emissions from wildfire and emissions from burning fossil fuels because every megawatt generated from woody biomass can replace a megawatt generated from emission-spewing fossil fuels. Substituting biomass energy, a by-product of sustainable forest management, for coal-fired energy could make a significant impact on the nation’s carbon footprint.