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Architecture & Engineering


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February 14, 2007

Fire danger fuels interest in burning trees for electricity

  • Backers of two new plants in Oregon say biomass energy can help reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but environmentalists say it is not sustainable.
    • By JEFF BARNARD
    AP Environmental Writer

    O'BRIEN, Ore. — After nearly 90 years of sawing pine and Douglas fir logs into lumber, Rough & Ready Lumber Co. is branching into the energy business, building a $5 million plant to burn logging debris and to produce electricity that it can sell at a “green tag” premium to the regional power grid.

    “It's ripe,” said Rough & Ready President Link Phillippi, who hopes to have a 1.5 megawatt plant up and running by this fall. “There are the economic benefits, the benefits of healthy forests, and the benefit of a country needing renewable energy — clean energy.”


     
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