Please consider signing yourself and/or your organization onto the letter below urging Vermont legislators to remove biomass, liquid biofuels, and renewable natural gas from the Affordable Heat Act. These fuels are false climate solutions that will not reduce emissions, and come with a host of other serious consequences.
To see the letter with the footnotes that will be included in the final version, follow this link.
Questions or suggestions? Contact us at stopvtbiomass@gmail.com or use the comment field at the end of this form. Thank you!
April XX, 2023
Dear Legislators,
We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, are writing to call for improvements to the Affordable Heat Act (S-0005 and H-0096) to eliminate clean heat credits for biomass, liquid biofuels and ‘renewable’ natural gas, and emphasize real, equitable climate solutions. We are concerned about the inclusion of biofuels and biomass in the current version of the bill, which would undermine Vermont’s efforts to meet its climate goals and come with serious environmental consequences.
Liquid biofuels, biomass and renewable natural gas (RNG) emit at least as much carbon per unit of energy as fossil fuels. Moreover, expansion of biomass, biofuels and RNG risks human health in our most vulnerable communities, incents the conversion of forests and agricultural lands to fuel production, and threatens biodiversity and clean water.
We call for eliminating biomass, liquid biofuels, and RNG from the measures eligible for clean heat credits. We also ask for accurate and robust emissions accounting in all state climate policy that explicitly includes all biogenic emissions, time delays before their putative reabsorption, associated land use change and fugitive emissions (even if they happen out of state).
These changes are needed because the underlying emissions accounting driving the inclusion of biomass, liquid biofuels, and RNG in the Affordable Heat Act (AHA) is inaccurate and undermines the purpose of the AHA. Vermont’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory, as well as the subsequent Pathways 2.0 study and MACC analysis, do not include biogenic emissions or emissions from land use and land use change (particularly for fuels produced out of state). Consequently, biomass and liquid biofuels are erroneously ascribed low emissions profiles. Likewise, the PUC has already accepted an inaccurately low carbon intensity value for RNG from the Seneca Meadows landfill, based on the same GREET model that the AHA suggests as a possibility for all emissions accounting. The Pathways 2.0 study calls for biofuels (including liquids, wood, and RNG) to account for a full 30% of Vermont’s thermal sector emissions reductions by 2050, with heating oil being 100% biofuel, wood heat to be used at 13% of homes, and Vermont’s distributed gas supply to be 80% “renewable.” With these biofuel targets and inaccurate emissions accounting underpinning the Affordable Heat Act, the current bill’s language around carbon intensity values —including a clause that even allows the 2050 carbon intensity cap to be waived—will not ensure that clean heat measures actually reduce emissions.
In addition to increased greenhouse gas emissions that come from burning biomass, liquid biofuels, and renewable natural gas, we are concerned about other serious consequences that come from expanding the use of these fuels:
Degradation of forests, Vermont’s most important and economical carbon sink and essential for protecting biodiversity and clean water.
Land use change from forest to agriculture caused by increased demand for biofuels
Biodiversity loss from forest degradation and land use change
Unjustly exporting the harms of Vermont’s energy use, especially for liquid biofuels and RNG, which are not likely to be produced in state
Incentivization of fundamentally destructive operations like landfills and animal feedlots
Human health impacts from combustion-based heating, especially biomass, which is dirtier than other fuels
Diversion of money toward ongoing fuel purchases that could be used to permanently lower Vermonters’ heating costs
Numerous policy experts and scientists have confirmed the above—that burning biomass, liquid biofuels and RNG is detrimental and not a solution to climate change. These experts include: Jared Ulmer, VT Department Of Health; Dr. Bill Moomaw, Tufts University and the Woodwell Climate Research Center; Dr. Juliette Rooney-Varga, University of Massachusetts; Dr. Rachel Smolker, Biofuelwatch; Laura Haight, Partnership for Policy Integrity; Dr. John Sterman, MIT; Dr. Jonathan Buonocore, Boston University; Dr. Jon Erickson, University of Vermont; Dr. Robert Howarth, Cornell University, and others. Relevant testimony was given in 2022 and 2023, for both S.5 and H.715, and to the Biomass Task Group of the Vermont Climate Council.
Vermont has a moral (and legal) imperative to act on climate. We applaud the legislature’s efforts to incentivize real climate solutions like weatherization, energy conservation, heat pumps, geothermal networks, and properly placed solar. Expanding the use of biomass, liquid biofuels, and RNG, as currently called for in the Affordable Heat Act, is not consistent with these goals. We urge you to remove biomass, liquid biofuels, and ‘renewable’ natural gas from the measures eligible for clean heat credits in the AHA, and to use more comprehensive and accurate emissions accounting in all state climate policy that includes biogenic emissions, land use change, fugitive emissions, and damage to existing carbon sinks like forests.
Sincerely,
(Organizations signed as of 4/13/23, in addition to more than 230 individuals)
Standing Trees
350 Vermont
Stop Vermont Biomass
Vermonters for a Clean Environment
Lake Champlain International
Extinction Rebellion Vermont
Partnership for Policy Integrity
Biofuelwatch
Rural Vermont
Vermont Workers Center
Massachusetts Forest Watch
Upper Valley Affinity Group
Sharon Energy Committee
350Burlington
Vermont Interfaith Power and Light
Thetford Climate Yogis
Water-Wise Vermont
Strafford Climate Action
Protect Our Woods
Earth Matters
Burlington Friends Meeting
Safe Landing BTV
Building A Local Economy (BALE)
Two Rivers Action Coalition
Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition
Grow More, Waste Less
350 Rutland County
Bristol Village Cohousing
Mountain Valley Climate Action
Jubilee Social Justice Committee, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington VT
Tempest Collective
White River Valley 350VT
Habitat Restoration Solutions
