Lawsuit Challenges Clean Air Act Exemption for Biomass Burners

SELC and its partners are challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that exempts large-scale biomass-burning facilities from carbon dioxide limits under the Clean Air Act for the next three years. The rule will encourage a rush to build biomass power plants and other biomass-burning facilities without accounting for or controlling carbon pollution that contributes to global warming. In the Southeast, the “fiber basket of the nation,” utilities and independent power producers are already moving forward with dozens of large wood-fired power plants and re-purposed power plants. Local demand from existing and proposed plants for wood fuel could easily outstrip the supply of available wood waste, meaning the facilities would need standing trees to meet the demand. Read the press release »