Key industry question of biomass carbon neutrality heating up in Washington

摘要

Decisions on the carbon neutrality of biomass — used extensively by the US paper and forest industry — will be coming to the forefront at the federal level amidst lawsuits against a deferral of new emissions regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. In July 2011, EPA imposed a three-year deferral of biogenic carbon dioxide emissions regulations pending a review of rules established a year earlier. Those rules did not distinguish biogenic emissions from biomass from emissions from fossil fuels, according to a summary by the American Forest & Paper Association.