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Aerial view of the National Petroleum Reserve in northwestern Alaska

The Biden Administration Protects Millions of Acres of Arctic Alaska

Latest NewsAlaskaJenny Shalant
The new Special Areas Rule in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska could boost biodiversity and empower Indigenous Peoples to defend the lands they’ve relied on for generations.
Two adults and a child walk along a sandy shoreline

“Forever Chemicals” Called PFAS Show Up in Your Food, Clothes, and Home

ExplainerUnited StatesMolly M. Ginty, Courtney Lindwall
These toxic chemicals are so common in consumer products and manufacturing that they’re everywhere—including inside our bodies.
A river with green trees on either side, with yellow hills in the background

In Planning for Climate Change, Native Americans Draw on the Past

ExplainerUnited States, CanadaTim Vanderpool
Across North America, Indigenous tribes and nations are consulting their traditional ecological knowledge to help prepare for a warming world.

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Forest Biopower Is Far From Carbon Neutral

Expert BlogInternationalSami Yassa

New Study Debunking the Carbon Neutrality of Forest Biomass Demonstrates that Forest Biopower from Wood Pellets Will Not Deliver Climate Benefits

Virginia and North Carolina Show Domestic Biopower the Exits

Expert BlogSami Yassa
Over the past 6 months, two southeastern states, Virginia and North Carolina, have taken landmark actions to ensure that dirty, destructive forest biomass for electricity has no place in the clean energy future of the region.

House Committee Stands Firm Against Dangerous Biomass Rider

Expert BlogSami Yassa
The Trump administration is ignoring a dire warning from nearly 800 scientists including winners of the Nobel Prize and the US Medal of Science who write “using wood deliberately harvested for burning will increase carbon in the atmosphere and warming…

No, Virginia, Burning Wood for Electricity Harms Climate

Expert BlogSami Yassa
Virginia’s plan to cap its carbon pollution from power plants is an historic step, as the Commonwealth becomes the first southern state to meaningfully address climate change. Unfortunately, the new rule includes a pro-polluter giveaway: it exempts pollution from burning…

Cutting Down Forests Is Not a Climate Solution

Expert BlogSasha Stashwick, Sami Yassa
The case for biomass energy, such as it was, collapsed in 2018. While we have long argued that uprooting forests and burning the wood for electricity makes no sense, a raft of new scientific studies, policy documents and economic analyses…

Biomass Advocates to U.S. Pols in 2017: Avoid Mistakes of EU

Expert BlogSasha Stashwick, Sami Yassa
While European Union countries like the United Kingdom continue to burn forest biomass—primarily in the form of imported wood pellets—to produce electricity, analysis conducted in 2017 shows it’s a bad bet financially and for the environment, underscoring the dangers of…

Chatham House Study Debunks Biomass Carbon Neutrality

Expert BlogSami Yassa
Today, a pre-eminent think tank in the United Kingdom, Chatham House, issued a seminal report challenging a fundamental assumption underlying European renewable energy policy: that burning forest biomass to produce electricity is “carbon neutral.” The report Woody Biomass for Power…