The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) issued regulations recently limiting ratepayer-funded subsidies known as renewable energy certificates (RECs) to only those biomass power plants which adhere to scientific standards for climate and forest impacts.
In the United States, over the past five years, thanks in part to tax credits from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and ratepayer-funded subsidies for renewable energy, more than 150 large-scale wood-burning power plants have been proposed around the country, said Booth and Sheehan.