By JEFF BARNARD
GRANTS PASS, Ore.
Oregon and other states with lots of trees have been counting on generating more electricity by burning forest thinnings and logging leftovers as a promising future source of green jobs and renewable energy as well as a way to pay for projects to prevent forest fires.
But a rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in May has the biomass industry, and Oregon’s congressional delegation, worried that biomass may lose its long-standing green status, and be lumped in with coal as a greenhouse gas polluter.