- by Rachel Smolker

The Obama administration has given yet another thumbs up to bioenergy, announcing $35 million in funding for research on feedstock production, bio-products development and biofuels development analysis.

The Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI), a joint program with Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Agriculture, will oversee the grants. The BRDI [...]

- by Julia Waite

March 16, 2012:  Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced a bill into the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate a large-scale sell off of federally owned lands in the western United States. Colorado, Wyoming and Montana are among the ten states implicated under H.R. 1126, the “Disposal of Excess Federal Lands [...]

- by Josh Schlossberg

Yet another in a long and growing list of scientific studies debunking the sustainability of industrial-scale biomass energy was published in Global Change Biology in April. The global study, “Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral,” was conducted by Schulze, Korner, Law, [...]

- by Josh Schlossberg

April 4, 2012: Gainesville Citizens CARE has filed a lawsuit in Florida Circuit Court to annul a $3 billion Power Purchase Agreement contract negotiated by Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) and approved by the Gainesville City Council for a 100 megawatt biomass incinerator proposed by American Renewables.

The lawsuit asks [...]

- by Josh Schlossberg

Vermont is the “greenest” state in the U.S., according to “Most and Least Green States,”  a report by the organization 24/7 Wall St. So where do the Green Mountain State’s two biggest environmental groups, Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) and Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), stand on burning forests [...]