Biomass meeting at Tech Center

How do you explain the infatuation of some alternative energy groups with biomass burning? Why in Western New England do Middlebury College, Massachusetts’ Coop Power group and now a new entity homing in on Brattleboro all espouse biomass burning at this critical juncture?

Perhaps the answer can be found in Brazilian theorist Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which was published in 1969. Prof. Freire observed that frequently, oppressed groups imitate their oppressors as a way to try to relieve their oppression. For instance, a poor worker can become a brutal foreman as he seeks to rise in the ranks of an organization.

In a similar fashion, progressive-type biomass promoters seek to escape the baleful influence of those who burn things for power by establishing their own systems of burning for power. They seek to regain control by establishing their own burning-for-power realms of influence on a scale that they can manipulate, like a college campus or a local cooperative, using a fuel supply that they also have access to and can control, namely local forests.

As Prof. Freire also noted, this is not real change and is a destructive path harmful to both those imitating and those who they in turn oppress, such as local residents who most breathe biomass-generated pollution and experience the effects of biomass burning’s increased carbon emissions.

dangerprobe wrote:

How do you explain the infatuation of some alternative energy groups with biomass burning? Why in Western New England do Middlebury College, Massachusetts’ Coop Power group and now a new entity homing in on Brattleboro all espouse biomass burning at this critical juncture?
Perhaps the answer can be found in Brazilian theorist Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which was published in 1969. Prof. Freire observed that frequently, oppressed groups imitate their oppressors as a way to try to relieve their oppression. For instance, a poor worker can become a brutal foreman as he seeks to rise in the ranks of an organization.
In a similar fashion, progressive-type biomass promoters seek to escape the baleful influence of those who burn things for power by establishing their own systems of burning for power. They seek to regain control by establishing their own burning-for-power realms of influence on a scale that they can manipulate, like a college campus or a local cooperative, using a fuel supply that they also have access to and can control, namely local forests.
As Prof. Freire also noted, this is not real change and is a destructive path harmful to both those imitating and those who they in turn oppress, such as local residents who most breathe biomass-generated pollution and experience the effects of biomass burning’s increased carbon emissions.

I know right. It wasn't that long ago that Hinsdale NH came out in force to reject a C&D Incenarator. Zoning wouldn't keep it out of town so they deffered to the State to place a moratorium on such operations. Now suddenly the tide has turned and Vermont is courting the technology.

You are mixing up apples and oranges. In around 2004/2005 I was doing a lot of work in New York City. I was a truck driver and I delivered all over the city....I delivered to the mom and pops and to the bigger stores right on the main drag. Right in heart of the Manhattan on Wall Street and the business district, to the ghettoes of Brooklyn where I was the only white guy on the street.

I was in the planet’s biggest real-estate bubble, I knew what I was seeing was unprecedented. They were kicking poor people out in the streets and then doing renovation....the appreciation of property values, rent and condominiums prices was spectacular...then the rich would move in to replace them. I am telling from what I’d seen on the road level was amazing.

I could see the construction going on in the street level and I was astonished to see the rail trains filled with construction debris...train after train load leaving the city. They don’t fool around in NYC, they do everything on a huge scale level there. They were running out of dump space, god knows how far they were transporting the debris...and the dumps because of a shortage, the cost were rising exponentially. It was happening at all our major cities. I don’t think you can imagine the magnitude of what I’d seen on the road level. It was the biggest real-estate speculation bubble, and the aftermath, that the world has ever known.

Basically the Hinsdale C&D incinerator was incentivized because of the real-estate bubble...the debris from all that renovation speculation. There was an expectation the C&D plant would get sorts of electric and global warming tax incentives...plus the lucrative charges to get rid debris. It was really smart combining the making money off the construction debris and getting credits for global warming...making electricity...they would have made a lot of money.

The typical biomass plant or wood chip power plant...they have no incentive like paying to just getting rid of all of this debris. It would be like a forester wanting to pay you big bucks for burning his wood chips...that could been profitable on its own basis. Then playing games with selling so called green electricity opened up a whole new profit avenue.

Rememeber the bankers would fund any crazy idea.

This was when the price of wood chips was spiking...speculation again!

http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php...

Fisher Cat Real Fur Coats on Babes and Sustainable Power Plants - Miss NH 2006

http://steamshovel2002.blogspot.com/2005/04/i...
Saturday, April 30, 2005

Incineration in Hinsdale NH
The challenge of teardowns

Published April 30, 2005
Who would have thought too much prosperity would be a problem for Chicago?

Let's find out which neighborhoods are being targeted to host the incinerator by Brat.Thermal Utilities,Inc. The residents and businesses nearest the stack will no doupt be some of the strongest opponents.

Education is also important: Biomass burns dirtier than coal, is hazardous to the forested landscape, and worsens global warming.(For links and info from a few miles downstream try: www.greenfieldbiomass.info )

Take action on the state and federal level to remove the "biomass loophole" that is encouraging speculators to foist incinerators on vulnerable communities.(For a sample of this work try: www.stopspewingcarbon.com )

Good luck Brattleboro!

Let's see now, CNS was denied a permit to build a warehouse because of truck traffic. The truck stop off of Exit 3 was protested and people were tazzed. Hinsdale rejected the Consturction and Demolition incinerator because of truck traffic would destroy Monument road and reduce the standard of living for residential neighbors.....

OK, my dream is construct a interstate spur from Brattleboro, through Hinsdale, through Winchester and then up to Route 101/9 in Keene? Then we wouldn’t get this garbage development...the clean big guys would come out way.

So far it hasn't been smart develoment.

Mike Mulligan wrote:

You are mixing up apples and oranges. In around 2004/2005 I was doing a lot of work in New York City. I was a truck driver and I delivered all over the city....I delivered to the mom and pops and to the bigger stores right on the main drag. Right in heart of the Manhattan on Wall Street and the business district, to the ghettoes of Brooklyn where I was the only white guy on the street.
I was in the planet’s biggest real-estate bubble, I knew what I was seeing was unprecedented. They were kicking poor people out in the streets and then doing renovation....the appreciation of property values, rent and condominiums prices was spectacular...then the rich would move in to replace them. I am telling from what I’d seen on the road level was amazing.
I could see the construction going on in the street level and I was astonished to see the rail trains filled with construction debris...train after train load leaving the city. They don’t fool around in NYC, they do everything on a huge scale level there. They were running out of dump space, god knows how far they were transporting the debris...and the dumps because of a shortage, the cost were rising exponentially. It was happening at all our major cities. I don’t think you can imagine the magnitude of what I’d seen on the road level. It was the biggest real-estate speculation bubble, and the aftermath, that the world has ever known.
Basically the Hinsdale C&D incinerator was incentivized because of the real-estate bubble...the debris from all that renovation speculation. There was an expectation the C&D plant would get sorts of electric and global warming tax incentives...plus the lucrative charges to get rid debris. It was really smart combining the making money off the construction debris and getting credits for global warming...making electricity...they would have made a lot of money.
The typical biomass plant or wood chip power plant...they have no incentive like paying to just getting rid of all of this debris. It would be like a forester wanting to pay you big bucks for burning his wood chips...that could been profitable on its own basis. Then playing games with selling so called green electricity opened up a whole new profit avenue.
Rememeber the bankers would fund any crazy idea.

Christ, the NYT’s wrote another big story for me?

Mike Mulligan wrote:

<quoted text>
Christ, the NYT’s wrote another big story for me?

You lost us Mike? Do you have an article from the NYT?

Tamarac wrote:

<quoted text>You lost us Mike? Do you have an article from the NYT?

I will pull out the relevant stuff of interest for this area tomorrow?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/nyregion/29...

October 29, 2009

A Stalled Vision: Big Development as City’s Future
By RUSS BUETTNER and RAY RIVERA

Over the past seven years, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has presided over a historic re-envisioning of New York City, one that loosened the reins on development across the boroughs and pushed more than 100 rezoning measures through a City Council that stamped them all into law.

His administration poured $16 billion into financing to foster commercial development and affordable housing and created quasi-local organizations to promote its initiatives and blunt neighborhood opposition.

And when the economy was burning white hot, as it did for several years, the mayor’s plan appeared to be bold and forward-looking, a prescient decision to remake portions of the city in order to lure companies, create jobs and increase economic vitality.

But that vitality is missing in some sections of New York today, where developments spurred in part by easy credit and in part by city initiatives are now stalled or in danger of collapse.

No question, the upheaval in the real estate world was primarily caused by a recession that Mr. Bloomberg had no role in starting and no power to stop. But Mr. Bloomberg has campaigned as a business visionary, better suited than most to lead in tough times, and any review of his term needs to confront his embrace of development as a stimulus tool.

The problem with me is I can envision all the metropolitan/mega cities in the USA because I have actually eyeballed them...I got the scale of the USA. This sucker is a huge and diverse country.