‘Split wood, not atoms’ in Vermont

Press, 20 January 1979, Page 22

‘Split wood, not atoms’ in Vermont

By an “Economist” correspondent in Burlington, Vermont

The stat of Vermont has little love for nuclear power stations. It has only one, which has caused lots of problems since it opened five years ago. Recently, the state’s sec-ond-largest electric power company sold its investments in three nuclear plants under construction and began to look for an alternative. In Vermont, what better alternativa than the forests'? There are more than 4m acres of forested land in Vermont, much of which needs culling. Wood is already an established energy source for two-thirds of Vermont householders, who burn it in their stoves and fireplaces. "Split wood, not atoms” is a popular bumpersticker. Yet Vermont remains dependent on foreign and domestic oil for more than three-quarters of its gyNow the electric power company of Burlington, the largest city, has come up with an idea to build a 50megawatt generating plant fuelled entirely with wood chips. Last spring, after an intense advertising cam-

paign by the company, Burlington voters approved the sale of S4OXI in bonds for half the cost of the plant. Even as they endorsed the plan, dissenting voices were heard. The power station, it is estimated, will consume about 500.000 tonnes of wood each year, or 2000 ha of clear-cut forest. No fewer than 200 ing a weight of 40.000 kg, would rumble over Burlington’s roads and bridges. The power produced from woodland all over Vermont would benefit only Burlington. There is enough deadwood in Vermont’s forests to supply two or three 50megawatt plants. But harvesting is fraught with problems. Land-ownership in the forest is patchy and smallscale, the average lot amounting to only 200 ha. On to these tiny plots will come the “chippers” with their companion “fellers” and “grapplers.” These are huge machines, costing between then* more than $400,000. A chipper can take a tree 55 cm in diameter and reduce it to chips, branches and all, in less than a minute. This is called by chipper firms, euphemistically, “weeding the garden.” But it is difficult to train a chipper to be so dainty; they tend to eat up both the good wood and the bad Few laws or regulations control forestry practices, Much is left to the conscience of the individual logger who. once on his chipper, often shows an enthusiasm matched only by the strip-miner on his bulldozer. Burlington officials have tried to monitor wholetree harvesting on a small scale. The electric power company will go to great lengths to avoid federal environmental agencies. It is even digging its own wells rather than take water out of the nearby river, to avoid the enrironmental protection agen« cy.