“This article, by prominent ecologists and climate scientists, underscores the need to measure the environmental benefits and costs of bioenergy in a complete and scientifically valid way. We need to promote bioenergy that helps us fight global warming rather than costs us forests. Global warming is too serious of a problem for us to use incomplete balance sheets.”

“The clean energy merits of biomass depend on the specifics of how it is harvested and how the land it comes from is managed. The climate bills currently under consideration in Congress fail to distinguish between the carbon footprint of burning biomass from a mature forest and burning crop waste. This problem was flagged by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman and Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson and needs to be addressed as clean energy and climate legislation moves through the Senate.”

“We have to get biofuels right to get the pollution reductions the clean energy bill is designed to achieve. The simple solution is to stop assuming burning biomass is always carbon-neutral and fix this problem.”

Read more on Dan Lashof’s blog:  Ecologists to the rescue