The wait continues for biomass money

No word yet on the county’s $4.1 million request for federal stimulus dollars

Baker County woodland owners and loggers are starting to wonder whether the Obama Administration and Democrats controlling Congress are serious about allocating stimulus dollars for biomass renewable energy projects.

“The federal stimulus money is really up in the air. Everybody’s holding their breath,” said Lane Parry, a co-owner of Elkhorn Biomass.

The company is cutting, packaging and marketing bundled firewood to retail outlets as the first step in what Parry hopes will expand into a multifaceted biomass enterprise at the former Ellingson Lumber Co. mill site in Baker City.

Parry and Kyle Denning of Elkhorn Biomass hope to start other types of woody biomass projects, such as manufacturing post and poles, or using biomass to generate energy.

He said Elkhorn Biomass is committed to working with the Baker County Small Woodlands Association to develop products or energy made from woody biomass.

The $4.1 million in federal stimulus funds requested on their behalf by Gene Stackle of the Baker City/County economic development team would accelerate that process and help put people to work in the woods and in biomass processing plants.

This morning Stackle said he had not received any word on the status of the application he submitted in February, with the understanding that federal officials were anxious to distribute stimulus funds to boost the faltering national economy.

“It’s definitely been kind of a hurry up and wait situation,” Stackle said. “We’re not sure where we are at with it now.”

“Hopefully we will have some information soon,” Stackle said.

Stackle said the $4.1 million in federal stimulus funds submitted by the Baker city/county economic development team would purchase a building and equipment needed for a proposed $9 million integrated woody biomass project. The project would include a wood gasification power plant, a pellet mill and a firewood packaging and marketing company.  

One of the options Elkhorn Biomass is researching involves using hog fuel and other woody biomass left over from fire mitigation and forest health thinning projects, as well as commercial thinning slash piles, to generate renewable energy, Parry said.

“I feel really positive about the potential for biomass utilization,” Parry said. “Using this type of material to produce energy is a new concept nationwide.”

“I think everybody is realizing it’s a source of energy we need to be capturing,” Parry said.

“The point is, we are here, and we are definitely looking at being here and trying to get something going,” Perry said.

In the meantime, he told those attending a meeting Thursday that Elkhorn Biomass has about 400 pallets of firewood ready to sell through retail chains and other outlets, but it’s tough to land contracts right now due to the economic downturn.

Bob Parker, Oregon State University Extension forester for Baker County, said the long-term plans of the Elkhorn Biomass owners match the Woodland Association’s goal of helping develop markets that will utilize a steady supply of woody biomass.

“One of the goals of our association was to find a strapping entrepreneur willing to take this on,” Parker said, adding that Denning and Parry are “the embodiment of everything we were hoping for.”

“The best thing we can do to help is pool our resources and provide the raw material,” Parry said.

He said the Woodlands Association just completed payment to Wallowa Resources for their work on a feasibility study and marketing strategy showing that using woody biomass to produce everything from firewood and wood pellets to renewable energy is a financially viable option, provided funding can be found to build plants to process woody biomass.

While the feasibility study showed there’s more than enough woody biomass generated annually in Baker County and neighboring counties within 35 to 40 miles to meet long-term supply needs for the three-part project, Stackle said discussions are continuing on what it would take for woodland owners to sign long-term contracts to supply a portion of the woody biomass.

In addition to Wallowa Resources and Elkhorn Biomass, the West Oregon Wood Products company is considering building a pellet mill in the Baker City area.

Building a 1 megawatt or larger gasification plant envisioned under the Woodlands Association’s feasibility study would make the whole package work financially, according to the study.

Wood wastes would be burned part of the time to generate thermal energy, which could be used part of the time to dry the wood pellets, and at other times to generate electricity to sell to local or regional power companies, Stackle said.

Now, the Association is looking for an infusion of cash to take the next step toward building a biomass plant complex, either from federal stimulus funds or from investors like Wallowa Resources, Parry and Denning or others.