The Oil Drum: Climate Change and Electricity From Biomass

The time has come to put the ongoing biomass debate in a larger context. My thanks to many TOD participants for their informative comments. I usually work the “problem” side of climate change, peak oil and natural gas supply in North America. Here I intend to address the “solutions” side of the debate. It is important to remember that no solution is without its attendant problems.

This post is lengthy and complex because the larger picture requires that I talk about a number of different subjects: electricity generation and usage trends, the weather & climate, coal trends, natural gas trends, CO2 emissions as they relate to electricity demand and biomass for power generation. However, if you’ll bear with me, a coherent picture emerges at the end. I will confine myself to the United States and not talk too much about oil.
Much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.