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Biomass and Climate Change

• Sterman et al., 2022. Does wood bioenergy help or harm the climate?

• Buchholz et al., 2017. Greenhouse gas emissions of local wood pellet heat from northeastern US forests

• Gunn et al., 2018. Scientific Evidence Does Not Support the Carbon Neutrality of Woody Biomass Energy

• Holtsmark et al., 2013. Quantifying the global warming potential of CO2 emissions from wood fuels

• BiofuelWatch: Biomass industry myths

Logging, Forest Health, and Carbon Storage

• Massachusetts Forest Watch "Timberspeak" fact sheet. Explains forestry terms and history of mainstream forestry.

• Standing Trees Fact Sheet: Forest Health and Management the Northeast US

• Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library: A library of scientific papers specifically focused on biomass energy.

• Forest Defenders Fact Sheet: Big trees are hugely important for mitigating climate change

• Birdsey et al., 2023. Middle-aged forests in the Eastern U.S. have significant climate mitigation potential. "In the near term of 20–40 years, reducing harvest will yield the greatest reduction in greenhouse gases compared with business as usual."

• Faison et al., 2023. The importance of natural forest stewardship in adaptation planning in the United States. "Natural forests (i.e., those protected and largely free from human management) tend to develop greater complexity, carbon storage, and tree diversity over time than forests that are actively managed; and natural forests often become less susceptible to future insect attacks and fire following these disturbances."

• Faison et al., 2023. Adaptation and mitigation capacity of wildland forests in the northeastern United States. "Our results highlight the adaptation and mitigation benefits of allowing natural processes to predominate in strictly protected areas."

• Thom et al., 2019. The climate sensitivity of carbon, timber, and species richness covaries with forest age. "Strategies aimed at enhancing the representation of older forest conditions at landscape scales will help sustain ecosystem services and biodiversity in a changing world."

• Nunery & Keeton, 2010. Forest Carbon Storage in the Northeastern United States. "Mean carbon sequestration was significantly (a = 0.05) greater for ‘'no management' compared to any of the active management scenarios."

Biomass and Human Health

• American Lung Association: Residential Wood Heat

• Burning Wood Pellets for Energy Endangers Local Communities' Health, January 2024. "The study finds that U.S. biomass-burning facilities emit on average 2.8 times the amount of pollution of power plants that burn coal, oil or natural gas."

Liquid Biofuels

• A new EPA proposal is reigniting a debate about what counts as ‘renewable’ - John McCracken, Grist, January 4th 2023

• The New Era of Biofuels Raises Environmental Concerns - Peter Fairley, Scientific American, December 13th 2022

• The Truth About Biofuels - Rishya Narayanan, November 3rd 2022 - Conservation Law Foundation

• “Northern biofuel laws and policies have violated the right to food of some of the world’s poorest people by increasing food prices and triggering large-scale land acquisitions that deprive local communities of access to land, water, and food. Biofuels represent the intensification of an industrial model of agricultural production that destroys local ecosystems, contribute to climate change, and exacerbates food insecurity. Ironically, the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of many biofuels exceed those of the fossil fuels they replace.” From the Environmental Justice Implications of Biofuels, Carmen Gonzales, Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons US Corn Ethanol Fuels Food Crisis in Developing Countries by Timothy A. Wise, Al Jazeera, October 12, 2012

• Real ambition vs. false solutions: what’s at stake during COP26, Center for International Environmental Law, 7 October 2021. Authors: Sebastien Duyck, Erika Lennon, Francesca Mingrone, Nikki Reisch and Lien Vandamme.

• Uncertainty in estimating the climate effects of biofuels, EPA Workshop on Biofuel Greenhouse Gas Modeling, Richard Plevin, PhD March 1, 2022.

• Biofuels Are Not a Green Alternative to Fossil Fuels, World Resources Institute, 2015

• Why Dedicating Land to Bioenergy Won’t Curb Climate Change, World Resources Institute, 2015

'Renewable' Natural Gas

• Dr. Robert Howarth, testimony to Sen. Natural Resources & Energy 02-08-2023 10:15AM - YouTube. Written testimony here.

• The Negative impacts of burning natural gas and biomass have surpassed coal generation in many states, May 5, 2021| Environmental Research Letters

• Biofuels Big Gas’s Latest Ploy: “Renewable Natural Gas”, Annika Hellweg, Conservation Law Foundation, Sep 20, 2020

• Internal documents detail how gas utilities greenwash RNG and hydrogen, Energy and Policy Institute

• Sierra Club Clean Heat Standard Webinar, Rachel Smolker of Biofuels Watch, February 2022
  Renewable Natural Gas is a false solution that not only doesn’t address the climate crisis and harms people but whose adoption will pave the way for continued use of fracked gas.

• The false promise of “renewable natural gas”, David Roberts, VOX, Feb 20, 2020

• Renewable Natural Gas and Greenwashing by Stuart Blood

• Rhetoric vs. Reality: the Myth of Renewable Natural Gas for Building Decarbonization, Earth Justice and Sierra Club