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Two of Maine’s largest paper mills are among the dirtiest in the country, according to a new study on U.S. pulp and paper plants, putting their emissions on par with some oil refineries.
The May report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a non-profit advocacy group, calls attention to the industry’s overreliance on dirty fuels and the old, inefficient technologies they use to burn them.
“In Maine, there are several plants that are still burning coal and… tires,” said Courtney Bernhardt, EIP’s director of research who co-authored the report. “We wanted to raise awareness about that.”
The group analyzed greenhouse gas emissions from 185 paper plants across the country, which Bernhardt says are undercounted by federal estimates because of a loophole in the reporting process: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t include greenhouse gas emissions from “biogenic” fuel sources like biomass or black liquor, a wood byproduct of the chemical papermaking process, both of which mills burn to power their operations and can be dirtier than coal.
The agency’s rationale for excluding those sources from total emissions estimates in its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, according to EIP, is “because trees can grow back in the future” and offset the carbon emissions from biomass fuels.
Until the EPA accurately reports and regulates all facility emissions, mill owners will have less of a reason to pursue energy efficiency upgrades that can both cut back reliance on dirty fuels and maintain profits, the report claims.
The study’s recommendations for tightening limits on the paper industry’s emissions come as the Trump administration eyes drastic rollbacks of federal rules curtailing greenhouse gases and hazardous air pollutants released by American power plants, according to reporting from The New York Times.
