<!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ --></p> <p>By Matt Diaz, especially for CalMatters</p> <p>This comment was originally posted by <a href=""https://calmatters.org/"">CalMatters</a>. <a href=""https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/"">Sign up</a> for their newsletters.</p> <p>Guest Comment written by</p> <p>Re: <a href=""https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/12/biomass-california-energy-wildfire-problems/"">Biomass is a money pit that won’t solve California’s energy or wildfire problems</a></p> <p>Shaye Wolf is right about one thing: California has affordable clean energy options like solar and wind. But her post ignores an urgent, critical reality on the ground: We’re in a wildfire crisis, and California is drowning in hazardous forest debris with nowhere to put it.</p> <p>Biomass energy does not mean cutting down healthy forests or replacing solar and wind energy. At issue is the fact that California is in a wildfire emergency and the state is facing a dangerous accumulation of fuels with limited options for safe disposal. Policy decisions must reflect this operational and societal reality, not just theoretical comparisons between energy sources.</p> <p>Valuing biomass solely on the basis of cost per megawatt hour or facility-level emissions misunderstands its role in the fire-prone landscape. The relevant policy choice is not biomass versus other renewable sources, but whether unavoidable forest material is processed through controlled, regulated facilities or disposed of through open burning, stockpiling or hazardous stockpiling near communities and infrastructure.</p> <p>This article was <a href=""https://calmatters.org/commentary/reader-reactions/2025/12/hazardous-forest-waste-wildfire-california/"">originally published on CalMatters</a> and is republished under <a href=""https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives</a> license.</p> <p> Copy the HTML
