US likely to adopt carbon policy within a decade, with country likely to follow Europe's lead on increasing use of bioenergy; wood pellets could be solution for expected future US carbon policy: FutureMetrics

Allison Oesterle

LOS ANGELES , May 27, 2014 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) – The U.S. will likely enact a carbon policy within the decade, according to a white paper by FutureMetrics LLC consultant William Strauss, Biomass Magazine reported on May 23.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) forecasts, which hold that any growth in the proportion of renewable energy will likely remain small, are incorrect when it comes to biomass utilization in the power sector, Strauss wrote in his white paper, “Wood Pellet Fuel: A Solution to Reliable Baseload Low Carbon Electric Power Generation.”

The U.S. is likely to follow Europe’s lead on increasing bioenergy use, Strauss added, noting that the EU’s current biomass use is greater than the EIA’s predicted US usage in 2040. Europe also favors using combined-heat-and-power stations, which provide improved efficiency when it comes to converting fuel into energy.

Strauss further suggests that wood pellets could be a good solution for the expected U.S. carbon policy, noting that the cost of pellet fuel will be lower than coal in the future. In order to mitigate climate change, the external costs of unregulated carbon emissions will need to be internalized by power generators, he concluded.

The primary source of this article is Biomass Magazine, Grand Forks, North Dakota, on May 23, 2014. Click here to see the original article.

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