Companies highlight how bioenergy benefits Georgia / Public News Service

Albany Green Energy and Procter and Gamble are showcasing how Georgia benefits from bioenergy this week.

In celebration of the 11th National Bioenergy Day, the companies hosted an open house Wednesday, demonstrating their use of woody biomass such as mill residue and forestry waste to generate clean and renewable energy.

James Luckey III, facility manager at Albany Green Energy, said burning the material helps reduce emissions and promotes environmental sustainability.

“What we are burning, it cancels out the smokestack emissions,” Luckey contended. “They’re canceled out by the carbon that’s absorbed by the forest regrowth because it promotes a lot of regrowth when we take out the branches and the debris and things that are left in the forest.”

He said by burning more than 2,000 pounds of biomass daily, they are able to supply process steam to Procter and Gamble and the U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base, and generate 52 megawatts of electricity for Georgia Power.

John Patteson, external relations director for Procter and Gamble, said they have taken a big step toward sustainability by harnessing renewable energy from AGE. Starting with a small on-site biomass boiler, they have advanced to using steam from AGE. He noted the approach not only helps them achieve their goals but also contributes to the production of everyday household products and the creation of more than 700 local jobs.

“We’re able to utilize something that was completely waste and turn that into energy,” Patteson explained. “Rather than it end up just in the field or being left behind, we’re able to take that and turn it into a usable product.”

Some environmental groups have been critical of wood biomass, arguing it reduces forest health and has a higher cost than other renewable alternatives.

The biomass industry helps employ more than 15,000 people in rural areas, supports local farmers and plays a part in reducing harmful forest fires.

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A governor-appointed commission could begin approving fracking leases on Ohio’s state lands as early as next month.

Jenny Morgan a volunteer for the group Save Ohio Parks who will be rallying experts and environmental activists in Columbus Oct. 27, said fracking and related infrastructure are linked to increased childhood cancers, fertility and hormone disruption and a host of other negative health effects.

“Gas and oil drilling, hydrofracking is anything but (safe),” Morgan contended. “The waste stream is radioactive waste that has to be re-injected, has to be carted away by trucks. It’s light pollution, it’s noise pollution, it’s air pollution.”

Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 507 into law this year, which mandates the state approve permits for oil and gas leasing on state-owned land. The fracking industry and other supporters of the legislation argued expanding fracking to state lands will benefit communities economically and keep energy costs affordable.

Morgan pointed to polls in recent years showing most residents are either strongly opposed, somewhat opposed, or unsure about fracking as a means of energy production in their state.

“We’re going to make our voices heard,” Morgan asserted. “Even though they have told us that our voices don’t matter and shown us that our voices don’t matter, we’re still going to stand up and insist that this not happen.”

According to the Yale School of the Environment, health effects increasingly linked to living near fracking include cancer, low birth weight, disruptions to the endocrine system, nose bleeds, headaches, and nausea.

Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

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Fire scientists are combining traditional methods with artificial intelligence to fight fires in Montana, and across the Southwest using a new tool which also draws on local landowner expertise.

Fire science experts have used natural fire breaks — roads, bridges and land masses — as ways to slow fires for a long time. Now, they are adding AI to the mix. With spatial analytical data and satellite imagery, fire managers use what they called Potential Operational Delineations to draw lines on a map and allow them to predict fire behavior, now and in the future.

Kit O’Connor, research ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service, said PODs are like geographical containers and are not always just for fighting a fire while it is burning.

“It’s to give you that bite-sized unit that you need so that you can start to think about the values that…