Using wood for heat is something humans have done for more than 50,000 years.  A crackling fire has emotional appeal and it is inexpensive.  However, there are a few drawbacks which apply to burning wood in general, mainly carbon dioxide emissions and air quality.  Wood is not a fossil fuel, but trees play a role in the carbon cycle.  When alive, they remove and store atmospheric CO2.  And burning wood emits CO2.

Biomass pellet production and export plants, along with bioenergy facilities, are being promoted as “green energy” all over the US and Europe.  Big corporations can receive “green energy” subsidies to produce electricity from their biomass plant, but biomass is a false climate solution.  “When we lose forests, we don’t ‘just’ lose green space or natural habitat.  We lose a key ally in our fight against climate change.”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in January 2021. The research from MIT, Does replacing coal with wood lower CO2 emissions, found that “Because combustion and processing efficiencies for wood are less than coal, the immediate impact of substituting wood for coal is an increase in atmospheric CO2 relative to coal.”

Burning wood also releases particulate matter, including toxic material.  According to Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution (dsawsp.org), wood burning creates large quantities of localized air pollution, which has been declared a Group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.  It also emits toxins such as PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), dioxins, benzene, mercury and formaldehyde into the environment. 

There is a new Wood Stove Replacement incentive available for residents of east Jefferson County. Funding from the Washington Department of Ecology through a Wood Smoke Reduction Grant incentivizes reducing woodsmoke pollution in parts of the state most at risk of exceeding health standards as a result of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution created by wood burning. 

There is an incentive of $2,000 for changing out a qualified wood stove to an electric heat pump – ductless or ducted.  A $1,000 incentive is available for change to natural gas, propane, electric ‘fire’ place, or pellet stove.  See the Wood Smoke Reduction Program at ORCAA.org for more.

In an open letter to President Biden and Members of Congress from more than 200 US forest carbon science experts, “Current science finds that burning trees for energy produces even more CO2 than burning coal, for equal electricity produced (Sterman et al. 2018)…”. (https://sites.tufts.edu/gdae/files/2020/05/Forest-Letter-to-Congress.pdf)

William Moomaw, PhD had a distinguished career as a physical chemist and environmental scientist.  He was lead author on five IPCC reports.  He says, “If we get to net-zero emissions by 2050 and we continue to reduce our emissions after that, and if we continue to increase the biological sequestration – the nature-based solutions as they’re sometimes referred to – we would actually start reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere between 2050 and 2100.  The more we can increase the sequestration rate and the faster we can reduce the emissions, the better off we’ll be.  But cutting trees to burn them is not the way to get there.”  (from Why Keeping Mature Forests Intact is Key to the Climate Fight, YaleEnvironment360).

Cynthia Bratz is a retired environmental engineer with expertise in clean water, sustainability and climate change.  She is a member of the Local 20/20 Climate group.