Recently reviewed and amended in 2019, MRSA §3210 dictates that it is State policy “to encourage the use of renewable, efficient and indigenous resources” and further that “wood or wood waste” are renewable resources for Maine to utilize.
The Maine Pellet Fuels Association (MPFA) and the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) jointly propose that to achieve the climate goals set forth by Governor Mills, the state should convert 15% of Maine’s homes and businesses from fossil fuels to efficient wood heating.
• Maine’s forests are renewable and are certified as responsibly managed lands (8.5 million acres), with 100 logging companies harvesting 5.5 million tons annually under third party certification by the Rainforest Alliance, working collaboratively to sequester over 60% of the state’s carbon emissions.
To achieve these outcomes, there are three main goals that need to be pursued. Maine, in its last legislative session, enacted MRSA §3210 “to encourage the use of renewable, efficient and indigenous resources” including “wood or wood waste” and should now seize on this opportunity to:
1. Substantially reduce CO2 emissions created by fossil fuels for building heat in Maine;
2. Nurture a homegrown energy economy that grows the fuel and builds, installs, and maintains the infrastructure;
3. Encourage increased certification of Maine’s forests and logging practices, capable of producing a never-ending source of energy
MPFA and PLC jointly believe that there are multiple solutions to our climate challenges and support all forms of green and renewable energy production. This is consistent with those energy solutions already identified in Maine statute (MRSA §3210). Therefore, we should be working to stimulate the uses of those energy sources in all that we do.
Goal 1: Substantially reduce CO2 emissions created by fossil fuels for heat in Maine
According to the Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Maine’s forests “sequester over 60% of the state’s annual [carbon] emissions, while the forest industry sector is statewide, multi-faceted, and provides between $8-10B in direct economic impact.” With proper management, Maine has the opportunity to increase this sequestration significantly and essentially work towards a carbon-neutral status as a state by 2045 and have 100% of retail sales electricity come from renewable resources by 2050 pursuant to the goals stated in MRSA §3210.
It has been well established that in order to properly manage a forest for its maximum health, harvesting is necessary although logging can initially seem counter-intuitive to forest growth and carbon sequestration. Responsible forest management practices have shown that when a tree is cut and another replanted or room is made for younger trees to grow, the forest as a whole can sequester far more carbon than if old trees are left to rot or burn. When trees are left to die naturally, they release methane which is “second only to carbon dioxide in its importance as a greenhouse-gas emission linked to global warming.”
Premium sawlogs are a vital component of the forest industry in Maine, but other parts of the tree and the residuals from sawmill operations are equally important and should also be utilized for higher value products, rather than decomposing and producing methane. Wood pellets, chips, and other wood byproducts are commonly made from sawmill residuals. “Significant energy benefits accrue from using wood products, which commonly are underestimated or uncounted in project-based carbon offset accounting rules.” And, these products are renewable per state policy already.
Wood is a sustainable replacement for millions of gallons of oil, propane, and natural gas. And, this replacement can be a constant source of central heat and domestic hot water that is made without the negative impacts from refining and burning fossil fuels. Modern pellet consuming furnaces and boilers achieve efficiency rates well above 80%, with some condensing boilers reaching 96% efficiency.
By building markets for non-sawlog quality wood for energy, Maine can improve its forests’ health, sequester more carbon, and have significant environmental and economic benefits statewide and regionally.
If 15% of Maine homes switch to wood from fossil fuels, it would mean approximately 195,000 Mainers would be using renewable Maine-made fuel, contributing to Maine’s forests’ health, and putting 100% of each dollar spent on heating back into the Maine economy. “Given the carbon benefits of Maine made pellet fuel, accounting for the carbon footprint from the transportation and production of wood pellets, pellet boilers reduce net carbon emissions by at least 85% compared to heating oil.”
Maine easily has the capacity to provide efficient wood fuel for 15% of Maine homes and businesses. That demand for low-grade wood would only somewhat offset losses in demand in recent years due to permanent closing of a number of Maine paper and biomass energy facilities.
Goal 2: Nurture a homegrown energy economy that grows the fuel and builds, installs, and maintains the infrastructure
When Maine transitions just 15% of its heating dependency to sustainable forest resources instead of fossil fuels, it will see an increase in income tax revenues of approximately $22.9 million annually based on job retention and creation, and the multiplier effects associated with no longer sending money out of the state to pay for heating oil and propane imported from refineries in other states. Building wood energy markets will sustain key components of the Maine forest products sector that are challenged by the decline in demand for wood by pulp and biomass electricity markets.
According to the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine and the Trust of Conserve Northeast Forestlands, “Maine’s loggers are a vital part of the state’s forest products sector, which is worth an estimated $8.5 billion annually. Maine’s logging industry contributes $882 million to the state’s economy each year and supports more than 7,300 direct and indirect jobs in the state.”
Already, Maine’s forest products sector and those that support it are and have been contributing considerably to the Maine economy. The contributions to the market with well-tested and proven efficient wood heating technologies will enable Maine to emerge as a frontrunner amongst U.S. states in terms of contributions to its economy from its own natural resources. It will no longer be dependent on foreign fuel sources, or their volatile prices.
Currently, Maine’s heating relies very heavily (over 80%) on fossil fuels with 61.3% using heating oil, 11.4% propane, and 7.7% natural gas. “Data from the US Department of Energy shows that about two-thirds of Maine households use fuel oil for home heating, the highest level of dependency in the US.” Contrast that with the fact that wood is a lower cost source of heating energy.
Using renewable Maine-made wood fuel, as stated previously, will keep virtually 100% of each dollar spent on heating costs within Maine, unlike fossil fuels which export about 68% of every dollar outside the state. Tens of millions of dollars would be kept in Maine and this will contribute to a strong and more independent energy economy. It will also support the retention and creation of tens of thousands of Maine jobs.
With a policy encouraging home and business owners in the state to convert to wood heating, we will be able to utilize Maine-produced wood fuel from Maine’s sustainably managed forests. The infrastructure for each of these steps exists currently to support this change to a homegrown energy economy.
Goal 3: Encourage continued certification of Maine's forests and loggers capable of producing a never-ending source of efficient wood energy
Maine has the responsibility and ability to continue to manage its forests responsibly to benefit the environment and the state’s economy. Its greatest natural resource is its forests. Maine is approximately 89% forested. 93% is privately owned land, and the 10 largest entities that manage forests account for nearly 8 million acres.
Further, 50% of Maine’s forests are certified to one of the three major forest certification standards (Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the American Tree Farm System (ATFS)). Additionally, there are 100 logging companies in Maine Master Logger certified. These companies employee over 1,200 people in rural Maine, harvest 5.5 million tons of wood annually and are 3rd party certified through the Rainforest Alliance. The Rainforest Alliance is a certification body and is one of the founding members of FSC.
Sustainable forest management is critical to addressing climate change and Maine is an international leader. By using wood for heat and domestic hot water, Mainers are putting their money where their mouth is. When wood fuel is consumed, the carbon that it releases is directly offset by the carbon stored in our forests when trees regrow. “In contrast, returning carbon released by burning fossil fuels to its source would require millennia.” Through the process of photosynthesis, our forests sequester carbon on a daily basis.
Using local wood instead of fossil fuels directly supports rural communities as well as healthy, sustainable forests by maintaining a carbon balance or a net carbon sink and it’s one way that individuals can contribute to solving our climate crisis. Maine Wood Pellets in Athens maintains FSC on its product because nearly 100% of its raw material comes from certified forests.
The case for good forest management and a healthy forest products industry is that without it, forests stagnate. Good forest management maximizes the forests’ health, yield, and carbon sequestration capabilities. With declining demand for forest products, forests are lost to decay or fire which does not help reduce net carbon emissions in the long run. In fact, “over the entire forest you’ll eventually reach a plateau, after which the net in-forest growth and carbon accumulation rates decline—eventually to zero” which means that by managing the forests we can do much better than zero. By responsibly managing forest health and sustainability, forests can provide the traditional products such as lumber but also can provide a source of clean low-carbon energy forever.
Managing forests for long-term sustainability is the responsibility of the landowners, the loggers, the consumers, the pellet and chip producers, and each person within the carbon cycle. It’s not just one industry, but the combination of several. Producers of wood products (loggers, landowners and mills) should be encouraged to pursue or maintain 3rd party certification for the sources that they receive their raw materials from.
“The world’s forests store 283 billion tons of carbon in their biomass.” And in the U.S. specifically, the EPA has stated that, “forests have been historically and are currently a net sink of carbon…Use of biomass for bioenergy can support the management of U.S. forests and can lead to increased carbon sequestration from U.S. forests over time” which led the EPA to the conclusion that from the point of combustion, wood pellets and chips are a carbon neutral fuel in direct contrast to burning fossil fuels. All fuels, prior to consumption, have a carbon footprint.
We recommend adopting a policy to promote and stimulate Mainers to utilize homegrown energy because it capitalizes on Maine’s natural resources. Furthering this policy doesn’t require importation or invention of any new technology or capabilities for the state. It will allow Maine to reduce net carbon emissions by using wood for efficient energy production and to increase state revenue and benefit the labor market – all while providing a never-ending source of energy.