The Burlington City Council held a work session Monday night to receive the annual progress report on Net Zero Energy goals. But some residents said the plan is flawed because it relies, in part, on a wood burning power plant.
In 2019, Burlington city leaders adopted a Net Zero Roadmap to eliminate fossil fuel emissions in three sectors by 2030. The effort is spearheaded by the Burlington Electric Department and General Manager Darren Springer told councilors there has been progress in one of the three targeted areas.
“This is a focus on reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel use across the electric, thermal and ground transportation sectors. We, of course, have achieved that in the electric sector, but have not achieved that in the thermal and ground transportation sectors.”
The success in the electric sector is being accomplished by using multiple sources including hydro, wind, solar and biomass. Most of the biomass is used at the city’s wood burning McNeil Generating Station. Some Burlington residents challenged the claim that the electric sector has met reduction goals because of the reliance on the McNeil plant
Leslie Swackhamer is a member of 3rd Act, a group of elders that advocates for the environment.
“There’s now overwhelming scientific consensus that biomass is not renewable and actually just as or more polluting than coal and natural gas. Burlington has now become an outlier in New England for continuing to classify biomass as renewable.”
Ward 1 resident Lisa Lax cited a 2021 letter from scientists and economists across the globe criticizing the classification of burning trees as a clean renewable.
“Burlington Electric has in many ways moved the city in a good direction by reducing fossil fuel use. However as long as the McNeil plant is operating, net zero in Burlington really isn’t zero in terms of carbon emissions or greenhouse gas emissions. McNeil is not net zero or carbon neutral. We shouldn’t gloss over this fact because carbon emissions make the climate crisis worse.”
Ward 1 Progressive councilor Carter Neubieser also doubted the success of reductions via the McNeil power plant.
“The reductions we’ve made, we’re just not getting where we need to go. I do take the point around McNeil. To me that is a high carbon emitter. I don’t count that as a win necessarily even though yes it is technically a renewable energy specifically for that carbon recapture timeline.”
Springer defended the use of the McNeil plant in calculating emission reductions to meet net zero goals.
“In terms of McNeil we understand the critique. There’s important distinctions. For example we don’t go out and cut trees to provide wood for McNeil. We take leftover product – tops, limbs, disease damaged trees, non-commercial wood from harvests that are happening anyway. And there’s a different carbon footprint to using that kind of wood than if you were going out and cutting wood for the purpose of using it for energy. So there are some important distinctions there. We’re onboard with the idea of let’s find ways to improve the environmental footprint and the efficiency options that we have at McNeil.”
Burlington resident Pike Porter said that while emissions in all three targeted sectors have been reduced, overall progress towards the net zero goal is lacking.
“While we have made a 17.8% reduction this year, we needed about an 80% reduction. We adopted this goal about 6 years ago and in those 6 years we’ve only reduced our emissions about 20%. It’s clear that the roadmap is not taking us where we want to be.”
