Oregon Public Broadcasting

Earlier this week, Portland and northwest Oregon, became the first part of the country to adopt mandatory ethanol standards. Ten percent of the gas you now buy in Portland, comes from corn-based ethanol.

The rest of the country will follow suit in the next few years. It's good news for farmers in the Midwest. But some businesses in this state think we may be able to develop a better fuel from Oregon's most famous resource.

Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports on how trees may bring energy independence.

Wood was probably mankind's first energy source.

Asante Riverwind is an environmental activist with the Sierra Club.

Asante Riverwind: “You know, wood is used for everything from campfires for recreationists -- a long, historically good thing. To the current version, looking at energy production.”

Now, some timber businesses see wood as a renewable source of energy that could give Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest, the kind of economic clout the oil-rich gulf states now have.

That future is a long way off.

Burning wood for energy simply isn't financially worthwhile right now.

Nor is burning the wood hot enough to produce more profitable oil or biofuel.

But that hasn't stopped the government, and other interest groups, from exploring the new business potential of what they call 'woody biomass.'

Cal Mukumoto is the manager of Warm Springs Biomass, a subsidiary of the timber company owned by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Cal Mukumoto: “It'll be a while before this is a real good replacement.”

The Warm Springs tribe received a $250,000 grant from the federal government to develop a woody biomass power plant.

And Mukumoto, along with most companies thinking about biomass power, say they hope to build new plants in balance with the environment.

Cal Mukumoto: “That's one of the reasons the Warm Springs tribe sized this plant a little smaller than what the supply said. We didn't want this biomass plant to start saying 'feed me'. It says it anyway, but we didn't want it in a low voice.”

Phil Chang is the biomass program administrator for the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.

Phil Chang: “Basically we have all this forest thinning activity going on to reduce the risk of wildfire and restore forest ecosystems. And we have this choice between taking all this small woody biomass material, chopping it up into pieces and burning it up in the woods.”

Chang says even while we're waiting around for a future rich in woody biofuel, there are lots of other uses for Oregon's biggest natural resource: small pieces of wood.

He points out that unlike typical timber factories, woody biomass doesn't need big, thick trees.

Phil Chang: “Right here in Central Oregon we can see people using woody biomass material to make post and poles, chips for pulp. We're right here at the JTS animal bedding plant where they shave up logs to make animal bedding products.”

Chang was walking around a new factory, built in Redmond.

Jim Wilson is the sales manager for JTS Bedding. His company takes wood rejected by the big timber mills and produces tons of wood shavings designed specifically for horse and animal stables.

Jim Wilson: “This chip truck, these are the trailers where our shavings come in, and until it gets here we have no idea whats inside. It's kinda like Cracker Jacks. So, our crew in the back will start dumping the truck and see the quality of the wood in that truck.”

Wilson says the new factory was built with help from another one of those $250,000 government biomass grants.

And Wilson says now his company can't get enough wood supply to meet their demand.

Asante Riverwind, the Sierra Club activist, says scale is why environmentalists aren't embracing biomass like you might think they would.

Asante Riverwind: “Our biggest concern, among many, is that a lot of money and expenditures go into creating a biomass plant. So they have a big appetite. And what happens ten, twenty years done the line? Are we creating something similar to the mills around here, an insatiable appetite that's going to be fed at a significantly harmful cost to the environment.”

Riverwind says even though it seems like a green technology, the future could give the biomass business just as much financial clout as the rest of the timber industry.

Especially if people start using woody biofuel for all sorts of unimagined purposes, like driving their cars or powering their homes.