Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) submitted a revised version of its draft of the new regulations for biomass facilities under its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) to the Massachusetts legislature. The revised draft regulations (pdf) include only relatively minor revisions to the previous draft, and not the wholesale revision many in the biomass and forest products industry had hoped for. If implemented, the new rules will dramatically increase the compliance burden for Massachusetts RPS-eligible biomass facilities, and could lead to a substantial reduction in the contribution of biomass to the Massachusetts RPS.
DOER released the first draft (pdf) of the regulations in September, 2010, followed by two public hearings that October (public comments here). The initial regulations were based on the controversial findings of a study conducted by the Manomet Center for Conservation Science on behalf of DOER, which concluded that use of biomass for electricity generation released more greenhouse gases than comparable fossil fuel generation. The proposed rules required biomass generation units to meet certain efficiency standards and submit a fuel supply plan and a lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions analysis showing a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases in order to be eligible for the Massachusetts RPS. The proposed rules also tightened the restrictions on eligible biomass fuels, and introduced a certification process for forest-derived biomass fuels intended to monitor and limit the amount of such fuels removed from harvest sites.
Despite the substantial lag between the end of the public comment period and the issuance of the revised draft rules, the revisions (yes, another pdf) are relatively minor. DOER concluded that the rule limiting the amount of eligible biomass material to be harvested from a site to 15% of the total amount harvested for forest producst was “arbitrary and insufficiently based on science.” In place of the 15% cap, the DOER has substituted a matrix specifying the percentage that may be removed based on soil type, ranging from zero to 40%. DOER has also revised the rules for efficiency calculations to incorporate variations in the heat content of biomass fuels, on-site usage of thermal energy, and the efficiency benefits of on-site generation compared to energy delivered via the grid. Other revisions include a standard methodology and template for calculating life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, and the explicit exclusion of construction and demolition waste as an eligible biomass fuel.
The regulations are expected to be referred to the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy for 30-day review. That Committee will offer comments, and the DOER will promulgate final regulations after an additional 30 days.
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