A Windfall for Biomass?
When a crisis occurs, it is important that decision makers take a moment to think before reacting in order to move forward rationally rather than making poor decisions based on fearmongering and opportunism by vested interests.
Currently we are being told by the biomass and timber industries that the tragic blow down of forests from the tornado which hit forests in Brimfield is proof of the need to build wood fueled biomass plants.
If we take a moment to look at this issue rationally, this argument actually brings us to the opposite conclusion.
Obviously, tornado forest blow downs are extremely rare, one-time events that do not provide a steady stream of fuel. However, the large forest blow down in Brimfield is also educational in its demonstration of just how much wood the proposed tree burning biomass plants consume.
According to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the forest blow down in Brimfield was 1,200 acres. According to the Carey Institute for Ecosystem studies, the average wood in Massachusetts forests is 81.6 green tons per acre, including big trees which could be used for lumber. This means that 100 percent of the forest on 1,200 acres contains 97,942 green tons of wood.
To put this in perspective, the proposed Russell biomass facility would require about 600,000 green tons of wood per year. All three proposed Pioneer Valley biomass facilities, including Springfield and Greenfield, would require about 1,716,000 green tons of wood per year.
This means even if 100 percent of the trees on all 1,200 acres of blown down Brimfield forest were chipped and burned (though likely it would be much less), it would only fuel a single biomass plant like the one in Russell for less than two months or all of the proposed Pioneer Valley biomass plants for only three weeks.
Then what?
Chris Matera
Massachusetts Forest Watch
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U.S. Postal Politics
Laying off 20 percent of the postal workforce? Closing 12 percent of the post offices? Gutting postal workers’ health and pension benefits? Eliminating Saturday delivery?
The Postmaster General is floating these radical proposals because, on paper, the USPS lost $20 billion in the last five years.
But 100 percent of the loss is due to an unnecessary 2006 Congressional mandate to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance within 10 years.
The financial “crisis” facing the U.S. Postal Service is just an accounting problem. The USPS does not need a taxpayer bailout, just a transfer of postal monies (derived from postage—the postal service receives no tax money) from the overfunded pension and retiree health benefits accounts to operating accounts. This can be done by Congress (HR 1351) or an Executive Order of the President.
Don’t believe the financial hype—it’s a political problem.
Moreover, it is a blatant attempt to subvert and circumvent collective bargaining, as National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric V. Rolando explains at http://nalc.org/.
Jon Weissman
President Emeritus
Western Mass. Branch 46
National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
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Mandatory Marriage Moratorium
I don’t get what is happening to radical gender politics today. Back in the 1970s, gays and lesbians wanted to undermine cultural norms by challenging traditional gender rolls. Today all they want to do is to get married and join the Army. But don’t be fooled.
Gay marriage is the most credible threat to traditional marriage since divorce. We need to lift the veil on gay marriage.
First some background. There are many different types of marriage. Common Law marriage used to be common but is now very uncommon. Left-handed marriages are all right with the Left but the Right thinks they’re wrong. And marriages of convenience are an inconvenient truth.
The truth is that there simply isn’t enough marriage to go around. If lesbians and gays can get married, that means less marriage for the rest of us. And if we become dependent on importing cheap foreign marriages, we become vulnerable to a marriage embargo. The next thing you know, we’ve got marriage rationing, and we don’t want the government deciding who gets married and who doesn’t.
But let’s face it America, it’s too late. Gay marriage is coming and there’s only one way to stop it. A national mandatory marriage moratorium. We have to lose marriage in order to save marriage. This way no one gets to get married, and the traditional sanctity of marriage will be preserved in its virgin state forever.
Andy Morris-Friedman
Hadley
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FDA: Ban Antibiotics in Animal Farming
Last week’s recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey by Cargill proves once again that our meat supply is not safe. The product has been linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella that killed one person and sickened 76 thus far. With $108 billion in annual sales, Cargill is the world’s largest meat processor.
Salmonella bacteria are nurtured in the intestines of animals raised for food, and many strains are resistant to common antibiotics. The bacteria develop resistance through exposure to antibiotics used routinely to speed growth in these animals.
As a first step, the Food and Drug Administration must ban the routine use of antibiotics in raising animals. The European Union has adopted such a ban in 2006. The World Health Organization has recommended a worldwide phase-out.
But, the ultimate solution to salmonella poisoning and a host of chronic killer diseases associated with meat consumption is to replace animal products in our diet with vegetables, fresh fruits, legumes, and grains. These foods contain all the nutrients we require, without deadly pathogens, antibiotics, pesticides, carcinogens, cholesterol, and saturated fats.
Eli Ingleson
Easthampton
Correction: In last week’s cover story about a summer gathering of Western Massachusetts Republicans (“Grand Old Picnic,” Aug. 11), we erred in counting the region’s state representative seats. There are 15 seats, not 12.
