Greene County, NY, could become green energy leader
Report: Biomass future predicted for Greene Co.
Energy resources abundant but underutilized
By: Colin DeVries
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
An alternative energy report discussed Wednesday painted a portrait of a bright green energy future in Greene County, potentially becoming a statewide industry leader in biomass production.
Green energy resources in Greene County are bountiful, said consultant Dan Conable of Cato Analytics, LLC, but are underutilized and have yet to realize their true potential.
“We could replace about 45 percent of what we’re spending heating with fuel oil and electricity in this county with biomass that we could readily take out of our woods,” he said, “and there’d be a lot of business activity surrounding that.”
The economic development benefits of investing in biomass — wood chips and pellets, grasses and willow shrub — were perhaps the most important aspect in educating potential consumers, Conable said, in addition to the energy efficiencies and sustainability benefits.
By utilizing the potential thousands of tons of biomass in Greene County, energy expenses would be recycled into our own economics instead of millions of dollars going to oil giants overseas, Conable said.
