For what ever fuel is used to create energy, the main issue is a steady and constant supply.  Conservation of our forests and a steady and constant supply do not go hand in hand.  There is always the constant urge to cut more than just small diameter trees and dead underbrush.  Unless Sierra Club has changed their thinking, biofuels from forests is a bad idea.  Jerry
 -------------- Original message from Donna Buell <[log in to unmask]>: --------------

Wally highlights an internal discussion going on in Sierra Club, I believe.  On the one hand, why not use this "forest waste" for energy?  Native Americans managed forests for millennia.  On the other hand, are we creating a market for a product that will grow beyond just "recycling waste"?  Corn ethanol started out as a waste product of high fructose corn syrup, for example.


Donna







On Aug 16, 2009, at 9:30 AM, Wallace Taylor wrote:
 
This announcement is basically generalities. The real importance will be in the details. I hope there really is a new perspective toward forests. Vilsack has always been a corporate lackey so I think we need to be vigilant.  
  
One point did fly out at me. He talks of using forests as a source for biofuels. This seems to continue the view of foresters that forests are crops to be planted, managed and harvested for human consumption, not as a part of the ecosystem in their own right.  
  
Wally Taylor

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