Calif. biomass plants see own crisis

  • 01/01/2001

In the midst of the state's worsening electricity crunch, Northern California's Honey Lake biomass power plant closed Tuesday due to a lack of wood waste to burn for fuel.The loss of the 30-megawatt Susanville plant barely dents the state's demand of 32,000 megawatts at peak times. But the shutdown illustrates a new California power problem: biomass power plants, which provide 2 percent of the state's power supply, are scrambling to find wood to burn during a 90-day moratorium on logging on federal land in eastern California.