Maine’s Pine Tree Politics blog details how the EPA is hurting the state’s biomass industry in the name of regulating greenhouse gasses:

As Matt Gagnon wrote a few months ago, the EPA recently issued a series of “tailoring rules” that put one of Maine’s most promising and rapidly expanding industries at risk, for no ostensible reason. Woody biomass, or energy created by burning waste wood, is widely recognized as a viable and carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels. Even so, biomass came under fire when the EPA released a tailoring rule that lumps it in with the most grievous fossil fuel polluters.
The EPA created further confusion on Wednesday by issuing guidance to the states on how to implement the greenhouse gas regulations scheduled to take effect in January. The guidance cedes a measure of power to the states, giving each state the authority to determine the “best available control technology” (BACT) to reduce emissions on a case-by-case basis. In the same statement, the EPA recognized that there is a distinction between emissions from biomass and other plant-based fuels and those from fossil fuels, but declined to take any action. Instead, the agency will deliver further guidance in January – after the tailoring rule goes into effect – that may exempt woody biomass from regulation.
The EPA guidance comes on the heels of Sen. Susan Collins indicating during remarks at the annual meeting of the Maine Pulp and Paper Association that there may be good news for the biomass industry coming down the pike. Referencing a letter that she and 40 of her Senate colleagues signed opposing the EPA’s anti-biomass policies, Collins stated her belief that their opposition was gaining traction, and that the EPA may alter their rulings to exempt the biomass industry entirely from greenhouse gas permitting.

The rest here.