New York biomass organization forms

Biomass Magazine April 2009
By Erin Voegele
Web exclusive posted March 25, 2009, at 2:46 p.m. CST

A new membership organization to serve the New York-area biomass industry is slated to begin operations April 1. The New York State Biomass Energy Alliance was formed to increase the public’s understanding of the renewable energy value of biomass, while facilitating communication among those working within the biomass industry.

“Many of the very practical projects that people are looking at now succeed and fail for the lack of understanding or support at the local level,” said Dan Conable, the alliance’s director. Many of the organization’s first projects will focus on working with local communities to help them deal with the many issues that need to be addressed when considering a new biomass project. These issues relate to land use, transportation, and emission concerns. “One of our big focuses is going to be working on the community level, because that’s where the projects happen,” Conable continued. “We will work to be sure that the people who are having to deal with those issues locally have good information so that things don’t become controversial simply because people don’t understand that for every concern there are reasonable available answers.”

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