Free Republic

According to the Rachel Carson Institute, Enviva alone — which currently owns and operates seven plants in the southeastern United States — is responsible for clearcutting 50 acres of southern forestland every day, much of it a mix of hardwoods critical for wildlife habitat and absorbing the carbon dioxide rapidly warming the planet.

Last week we showed that while US natural gas prices have had several catalysts that have propelled them higher in recent weeks, one of the biggest drivers why natural gas is trading at the highest level in over a decade, was the recent surge in LNG exports to Europe as Reuters’ energy expert John Kemp explained in detail. But while the surge in oil exports is bad news for US consumers, it’s fantastic news for LNG tankers because as the FT reports, the world’s largest gas traders are scrambling to secure liquefied natural gas tankers ahead of winter after the...

Sustainability (sustainable development) is one of the hottest trends on college campuses, in the news media, in corporate boardrooms, and with regulators. There are three different versions.Real Sustainability involves thoughtful, caring, responsible, economical stewardship and conservation of land, water, energy, metallic, forest, wildlife and other natural resources. Responsible businesses, families, and communities practice this kind of sustainability every day: polluting less, recycling where it makes sense, and using less energy, water, and raw materials to manufacture the products we need.Public Relations Sustainability mostly involves meaningless, superficial, unverifiable, image-enhancing assertions that a company is devoted to renewable fuels, corporate responsibility, environmental...

Carol Newby's search for bags of wood pellets to fuel the family pellet stove took her on a tour of Southern New Hampshire last week, with little success. "We usually get them at the local Agway," she said, "but they were in short supply and what they had was committed to customers who'd made pre-buys." She was able to get a few bags at the Lowe's in Epping, but when she went back, they were out. After coming up empty at tractor supply stores in Epping and Hooksett, she tried a nearby Home Depot, which also had no pellets to...

There is of course no ONE way and no ONE solution to using less energy. I invite you to send me your stories about what you are doing. Here is Tom’s. What is new here is Tom’s choice of a Pellet Boiler. Something like this will be used as an experiment in the French School on PEI. So keeping up with Tom is a good foretaste of how our schools might be heated. It’s also not a system seen here on PEI yet for residential and it will be great to follow Tom and Gail over the winter and see...

WEST SPRINGFIELD - Pellet stoves didn't use to be hot sellers in July when the temperatures were pushing 90 degrees and homeowners thoughts ran more to pools and air conditioners. "You never sold a stove this time of year," said Russell I. Pomeroy, owner of Pomeroy Lumber Co. in North Hatfield. "But, now, you can't afford not to have one." With the price of home heating oil up to $4.71 per gallon compared with $2.54 a gallon a year ago and the price of propane is at $3.12 a gallon compared with $2.31 a gallon a year ago, homeowners are...

Nick Sylvester is a father of two small children who uses wood pellets to heat his home. "I am a fan of the pellets, I don't have the time to stoke," Sylvester said. "I want a thermostat and be able to walk away. There is no overheating, or it shuts down." Sylvester is also the product manager for Superior Hearth, Spas & Leisure with stores in Southington and Avon. With home heating oil expected to reach $4.75 to $5 per gallon, homeowners are flocking to get a closer look at fireplace inserts, pellet and wood burning stoves to heat their...

Joann (Tink) Birchem says she “can see the forest for the trees.” In time, everyone else will see it too, she says. Birchem and her husband Jerry, own Valley Forest Wood Products LLC and Birchem Logging Inc., both in Mountain Iron, Minn. Somewhere in northeast Minnesota, where thousands of trees dot the landscape, Tink Birchem saw the forest that she believes holds the future of heating. That future is in the form of a small wood pellet that burns hot and clean inside special furnaces. Eventually, everyone is going to need them and the reason can be explained in one...

A new patented Tornado Generator(TM) accelerates compressed air to supersonic speeds in a closed cyclonic chamber where the air is powerful enough to almost instantly grind, flash desiccate and atomize solid and liquid wastes and other materials into micron sized powders. The Tornado Generator(TM) has no internal moving parts and is powered by compressed air. Needing only an appropriately sized generator and compressor, processing with the Tornado Generator(TM) is very robust and is capable of field operation. The technology can cost-effectively and rapidly process a very broad array of wastes including agricultural wastes, septic wastes, municipal solid wastes, and construction...