25% renewable heat in U.S. Northeast proposed

Oct. 7,
2010, Washington, D.C. – The Northeast Biomass Thermal Working Group (NEBTWG)
is calling on legislators and state officials in the northeastern United States
to begin work on meeting 25% of the region's heating needs with renewable
energy. The group's plan, “Heating the Northeast with Renewable Biomass: a Bold
Vision for 2025,” details the path towards a 25% replacement of the U.S.
Northeast's fossil fuel use in heating with renewable sources of energy. This
vision was developed the Biomass Thermal Energy Council, the New York Biomass
Energy Alliance, the Maine Pellet Fuels Association, the Alliance for Green
Heat, and the Pellet Fuels Institute. As a result of the vision, the NEBTWG was
formed to advance the use of biomass for thermal energy in the six New England
states and New York.

"We
have an ambitious goal, but with careful attention to forest sustainability and
development of the potential of dedicated energy crops, such a transition to
heating with renewable biomass can be done," says Dan Conable, executive
director of the New York Biomass Energy Alliance and a member of the NEBTWG
steering committee. "Scandinavia and western Europe give us clear, cost-effective
examples of the kind of dramatic transformations that are possible, moving
away from fossil fuel heating to biomass heating in the residential,
commercial, and industrial sectors."