Burn This

 As Published in Seven Days, April 29, 2020:

Burn This

Kevin McCallum's article ["Carbon Quandary," October 9, 2019] and Brian Forrest's letter [Feedback: "No Burn," March 4] remind us that there is no such thing as "carbon neutral" — a self-deception that has polluted Vermont's politics for years.

McCallum presents accounting for biomass carbon emissions as "new thinking." He is being too polite. Just as we were aware of our unpreparedness for pandemics, and our awareness of global warming is now measurable in centuries (one since Svante Arrhenius, 1.5 since Eunice Newton Foote and nearly two since Joseph Fourier), everyone has known that burning trees is a bad idea.

Everyone? Certainly everyone who should know: regulators, utilities, environmentalists, power producers, legislators. In Vermont Public Service Board Docket 5611 (circa 1992), biomass was one of many forms of electrical generation examined for environmental externalities. Everyone knew that burning wood emits at least as much carbon dioxide as burning coal.

A point made by both McCallum and Forrest is spot-on: A district heating system based on the McNeil Generating Station would keep that plant in operation, something that cannot be allowed to happen. Obsolete and standing in the way of climate progress, McNeil deserves prompt closure.

Peter Duval

Underhill