Wood Is Good
Energy Source

The time is right to a take a serious look at how Vermont's most important renewable resource, our forests, can best serve our long term energy needs.

The northern woodlands have long been recognized as among the most productive in our nation. State policy , through current use and other programs, have for years been designed to maximize their potential by encouraging the growth of high qualtiy species.

Recently, major users of lower quality wood—the pulp and paper mills of New Hampshire—have been closing down, leaving a serious gap that needs to be addressed. Using this so-called "junk" wood for energy has proved very successful at both Ryegate and Burlington power plants, as well as being a heat source for State office buildings in Montpelier and Waterbury.

We have in Vermont a strong professional forest product industry that has been able to adapt to and work within the strict environmental laws of our state. We have invested considerable funds to insure, through current use and other programs, the development of productive forests.

We now have an increasing need for a market for the less valuable speices of trees. At the same time we have a need to develp new renewable energy sources. The potential for a win-win situation is at hand.

Clearly it is time for the State to develop policies to encouage the use of wood as an energy source. This would involve continued conversion to wood heat in state-owned buildings and programs designed to encourage the use of wood heat in our colleges and factories. It would also involve help in both locating places for wood-fired power plants and developing safe effcient transportation routes.

With appropriate technology, wood is a clean efficient energy source. Using lower grade species for this purpose would also be an important component to a continued healthy forest products industry in Vermont.

We should give wood, our most obivous and important renewable energy source, a prominent place in planning for our energy future.

John Freitag

South Strafford