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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10334)	4/24/2010 11:02:00 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24212

Green Mountain College biomass plant opens today By Tim Johnson, Free Press Staff Writer • Thursday, April 22, 2010 A biomass plant makes its official debut today at Green Mountain College in Poultney, significantly reducing the school's greenhouse gas emissions and putting the institution's goal of "climate neutrality" within range next year, one of the earliest target dates of any college in the country. The new $5.8 million wood-chip-burning plant will supply 85 percent of the school's heat and generate 20 percent of its electricity. This will dramatically reduce the use of fuel oil, the previous power source for heating, which will be burned only on the coldest days of the year. The college's emissions from stationary sources (mostly the heating of buildings) are expected to drop from 3,420 metric tons of carbon equivalents (the 2007 level), to 546 metric tons. Overall, the college expects to cut its emissions about 56 percent by next year. Total emissions in 2011 are projected at 2,795 metric tons -- primarily from transportation and purchased electricity -- which will be covered through the purchase of carbon offsets at a cost expected to range from $28,000 to $84,000. "This is a great day in our history, but it is also a great day for Vermont, and for all who are committed to finding solutions to a cleaner energy future," college President Paul J. Fonteyn said in a news release. Green Mountain College, with an enrollment of 820, is one of more than 650 signatories in the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, a national initiative that obliges member schools to develop inventories of their greenhouse gas emissions and to draw up "climate action" plans that aim to reduce net emissions to zero. The most common emissions-cutting strategies involve renewable energy, energy conservation, and the purchase of offsets linked to documented emissions reductions off campus. Middlebury College, with a climate-neutral target date of 2016 under the commitment, had an annual emissions output of about 30,000 metric tons before starting up its own biomass plant last year to meet much of the campus' heating needs. The University of Vermont, with an annual output of about 60,000 tons, is another signatory and is working on its climate action plan. (2 of 2) As in Middlebury's case, the biomass plant at Green Mountain College will emit carbon dioxide, but those emissions don't count in climate-change accounting because they're produced by renewable power sources -- locally harvested trees. With the new plant, Green Mountain College comes full circle: The school's original building in 1837 was heated by wood stoves that students were expected to keep stocked. In 2005, students in a freshman honors seminar proposed a feasibility study for a biomass plant, a study that students later agreed to fund with $10,000 from their activity fees. Fonteyn, a biologist, made the project a priority after he took office in 2008. The plant has also become an educational resource -- nine courses this year have focused on some aspect of the project. "We see this as a key part of our plan to make GMC a model of sustainability for other colleges and the surrounding community," said Amber Garrard, the college's sustainability coordinator, in the news release. "It has allowed our students to use the campus as a living laboratory to reduce our ecological footprint. We've thoroughly integrated the biomass plant into our curriculum." Next Page burlingtonfreepress.com