5 Groups File Lawsuit Challenging EPA's Free Pass on Climate Pollution from Biomass Energy

Good decisions require good information.

Stakeholders in the paper industry's transformation towards greater environmental responsibility need good information about the climate pollution from harvesting, land-use change, and smokestack emissions of using and burning virgin tree fiber to make paper.

That's why paper industry transformation advocates are keenly interested in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory process on this matter, and the most recent news of a final decision to delay regulatory action on climate pollution from biomass energy and study the issue for three years, while in the meantime sanctioning the "carbon-neutral" myth of this type of energy, even directly from natural forests.

This week, 5 organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA's recent final decision and the Partnership for Policy Integrity has a good overview article about the issue and the lawsuit."

"Earlier this year, despite having initially included “biogenic” CO₂ in the greenhouse gases to be newly regulated under the Clean Air Act, the EPA reversed its initial decision and announced it needed three years to decide  how biomass carbon emissions should be regulated. In response, The Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Georgia ForestWatch, Natural Resources Council of Maine and Wild Virginia filed a lawsuit August 15 against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. to overturn EPA’s three-year deferral."

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