Middlebury College Overstates CO2 of Its Tree Burning Plant by 2 times and Sequestering CO2 by its Forests by 10 times

Middlebury College Overstates CO2 of Its Tree Burning Plant by 2 times and Sequestering CO2 by its Forests by 10 times

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/middlebury-college-overstates-co2-of-its-tree-burning-plant-and

By Willem Post

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Middlebury College in Vermont, has an Environmental Studies Department.

 

The Department receives federal and state government grants and alumni bequests to perform environment-related studies

 

The Department held a Senior Student Seminar (ES 401) during the Winter of 2010 regarding:

1) the CO2 emissions of the Campus tree burning plant, and

2) the sequestering of CO2 by the forest owned by the College.

 

1) According to the Campus wood burning plant website, the best estimate of wood chip delivery is 20,000 tons of green wood chips per year.

 

Incorrect CO2 Calculation

 

The seminar report states: “Thus, a more realistic estimate of carbon emissions is: 20,000, US ton of green wood x 0.50, moisture content x 44/12 x 1 = 36,667 tons of carbon”. See URL, pages 38 and 39. 

 

This calculation is incorrect, because it did not account for the carbon content of dry wood

 

BTW, the word “carbon” should read “CO2”

http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/255078/original/Winter_2010carbon_sequestration.pdf

 

Correct CO2 Calculation

 

The wood chips contain 20,000, US ton of green wood x 0.50, moisture content = 10,000 US ton of dry wood.

The dry wood contains 10,000 US ton of dry wood x 0.487 lb carbon/lb dry wood = 4,870 US ton of carbon.

The CO2 created by combustion is 44/12 x 4,870 = 17,857 US ton of CO2.

 

The report overstated the CO2 emissions by 36,667/17,856 = 2.05 times

  

2) Incorrect Calculation of CO2 Sequestered by the Forest

 

The report states: "Middlebury College-owned forests, 1295 ha (3200 acre), will sequester about 9,905 US ton of carbon/y, or 9905/3200 = 3.095 US ton of carbon/acre, or 44/12 x 3.095 = 11.35 US ton of CO2/acre. See URL, page 39, table 7

 

For reference: Vermont forestland, 4,511,000 acres, sequestered about 4,390,000 metric. ton of CO2, or 0.973 metric ton of CO2/acre, or 1.073 US ton of CO2/acre, per US Forest Service.

https://fpr.vermont.gov/sites/fpr/files/Forest_and_Forestry/The_Forest_Ecosystem/Library/Forest%20Carbon%20Inventory%20_Mar%202017_final.pdf

 

The report overstated the sequestered CO2 by 11.35/1.073 = 10.6 times

 

I sent McKibben a copy of my numbers
He told me he would forward it to the proper persons

 

Those are the type of enviros who fear-monger us, are taxing us, are mandating us, and are telling us to spend our hard-earned money on super-expensive, impoverishing Net-zero to reduce CO2 by 2050.

CO2 is a life gas, if below 200 ppm most plants barely grow.

At 200 CO2 ppm, there would be no greening of the earth, and no fauna, and no 8 billion people.

We need about 1000 CO2 ppm for optimum plant growth, as proven in laboratories and commercial greenhouses.

These McKibben-perverted/brainwashed enviros are incompetent and should be reduced to nothing

Middlebury state and federal government grants are being wasted and should be cancelled

Alumni donations should not be squandered on BS “studies”.