West Coast Forest Bioenergy Production Could Increase Carbon Emissions

A new study in Nature Climate Change finds that forest thinning to prevent fires and large-scale bioenergy harvest in West Coast forests leads to 2-14% higher carbon emissions over the next 20 years compared with current management practices. This challenges the assumed argument that substituting fossil fuel with bioenergy from forests results in zero net emissions due to the recapture of the emitted carbon in the growth of new biomass. According to the LA Times, the study does not show that any individual project will increase emission compared to current levels, but that if these practices are implemented widely they will increase regional emissions, at least in West Coast forests.