The most progressive town in Humboldt county is in danger of endorsing
dirty electricity from the biomass plant in Scotia. That would be a
mistake and a misunderstanding. Our coalition asked Arcata’s city
council to influence Redwood Coast Energy Authority to take biomass
electricity out of its power mix. However, the city council seems to
believe we’re demanding that RCEA take it out before affordable
clean energy is available to replace it. That is not what our
resolution said.
One
by one the biomass myths have fallen. RCEA can no longer say that
burning wood to make electricity is carbon-neutral. Indeed, it emits
more carbon than coal. They can no longer call it clean energy as our
investigation has turned up hundreds of Clean Air Act violations
racked up in recent years. The most recent myth to fall prey to
reality is that the biomass plant in Scotia plays a major role in
making forests safe from wildfires by burning material from fuel load
reduction projects. As the plant itself has now reported, the plant
primarily burns its own mill waste. Only 4% would remain in the
forest if they didn’t burn it.
Please
attend the Arcata city council meeting Wednesday night at 6 o’clock
on February 7, to ask the council to get a report from RCEA’s energy
procurement contractor, The Energy Authority before they vote. TEA can tell us
how much it would cost and how long it would take to replace Humboldt
Sawmill’s biomass with clean energy. We need that report from an
objective agency instead of RCEA, which has unfortunately taken an
adversarial position on this issue despite our common goals.
Our
campaign had a victory when enough of you showed up last summer at an
RCEA meeting to tell the board and staff to not increase their
financial support for dirty biomass by buying Renewable Energy
Certificates from HSC. Eighteen organizations belong to our
coalition, the Humboldt Coalition for Clean Energy, but that means
nothing unless people show up. You’re the muscle of our campaign!
This
issue is on the agenda right after the consent calendar,
number X A. If you can’t go to Arcata City Hall at 736 F St., You can Zoom at
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88359054173 or you can phone in at 669 900-6833. The meeting ID is 883 5905 4173
3
OR
you can email a comment to the council members: sschaefer; mmathews;
satkinssalazar; astillman; and kwhite—all of these names are
@cityofarcata.org Please put item X A on the subject line.
Thank
you.
Martha
Walden for the Humboldt Coalition for Clean Energy