Biomass - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 167

Figure 9.3 The Costs of Utilizing Beneficial Biomass Technologies

$

Environmental
costs

Dollar
costs

National security
costs

SUMMARY OF COSTS

The costs of utilizing beneficial biomass technologies are summarized in Figure 9.3. Overall, the
environmental costs for producing and using beneficial biomass technologies are “low” compared
to most conventional fuel technologies in use today because they reduce overall carbon emissions to
the atmosphere and do not compete with food crops for land, instead using portions of crop residues,
sustainably harvested wood and forest residues, and clean municipal and industrial wastes.
The costs of utilizing harmful biomass technologies are summarized in Figure 9.4. The en-
vironmental cost of using harmful biomass technologies is “high” because they add net carbon
to the atmosphere; involve clearing forests, savannas, or grasslands to grow energy crops; and
displace food production for energy production that ultimately leads to the clearing of carbon-rich
ecosystems elsewhere to grow food, or due to the high costs of disruption of relatively large acre-
ages of land that would be dedicated to growing energy crops. Producing biopower and biofuels
through use of beneficial biomass resources and practices such as agricultural and forest waste
materials is clearly less environmentally damaging than through exploitation of harmful biomass
resources such as food crops for fuel.
Dollar costs for biomass technologies generating electricity and biogas are generally “low” and
competitive today with conventional fuel technologies. High gasoline prices and federal subsidies
have made the dollar costs for biomass used to produce liquid fuels such as ethanol-blended fuel
and biodiesel competitive with other fuels.
National security costs for all biomass technologies are very “low” or negligible because the