British Columbia Wood Pellets a Green Hit in Europe but Not in Canada. By Justine Hunter, Toronto Globe and Mail, August 20, 2010. "Every day, 500 tons of tiny wood pellets are churned out of Pacific BioEnergy's Prince George plant, destined for thermal power plants in Europe. Loaded into boxcars and transported by rail, cargo ship and, finally, canal barges, they'll travel more than 20,000 kilometers before they end up heating some kid's waffle in Belgium... By the end of 2010, Pacific BioEnergy will double the capacity of its Prince George plant on the strength of a deal signed earlier this year with a leading energy company, GDF SUEZ. Throughout the 10-year pact, the European company expects to reduce its net CO2 emissions by more than 4 million tons by supplementing coal with B.C. wood pellets... Much closer to home, Alberta is the largest provincial emitter of greenhouse gases in Canada, in part because of its reliance on coal-fired electricity generation. (Energy that B.C. often buys to fill its own needs.)…The private companies that run Alberta's electricity plants don't see an economic benefit. Coal is cheap, especially when there is only a token price tag on the pollution produced by burning it… Just 6% of the wood pellets manufactured in B.C. last year were consumed domestically."
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