TRAVERSE CITY -- Jeff Gibbs struggles to breathe whenever he sits around a campfire.
The Traverse City resident is "particularly sensitive" to air pollution, though he said he's never been diagnosed with a medical condition that would explain his struggles with wood smoke.
Gibbs plans to voice his opposition to a local utility's plan to construct several biomass power plants in and around Traverse City at tonight's city commission meeting.
"Burning anything for energy is extremely pollutant," Gibbs said. "No matter how efficient you make it, it's still burning something that's just bad for the air."
Traverse City Light & Power officials in January proposed to city commissioners the idea to burn wood chips instead of coal.
Light & Power officials cited environmental concerns and an increase in coal prices as major reasons for the transition.
But utility spokesman Jim Cooper doesn't expect any biomass plants to pop up around Traverse City anytime soon.
"We don't have a plan, we don't have a size, we don't have a location," he said.
Light & Power officials have discussed the idea with city commissioners, but Cooper said it will take at least three years for the proposal to reach fruition.
Four biomass power plants in and around Traverse City would cost roughly $70 million to build, and would generate 20 megawatts to power about 20,000 homes.
Light & Power peaks at about 65 megawatts, which means the biomass plants would provide less than a third of its power source.
Aside from a wind turbine located off M-72 in Elmwood Township, a majority of local power stems from coal-burning plants.
"We need to get off coal and investigate other strategies that are less carbon-producing," said Hans Voss, executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute.
Utilities in Michigan primarily use western coal, which emits less sulfur and mercury than coal from eastern states, said Greg White, Michigan Public Service Commission legislative liaison. But "cleaner coal" from the Powder River Basin that runs through Wyoming and Montana is more expensive, White said.
"Michigan spends more than $20 billion a year on the importation of energy," he said.
But Michigan is home to plenty of trees that could be used to generate power, supporters of that energy source contend.
Wood fuel would come from logging operation leftovers, such as chips, branches and scraps, plus possible trees with little timber value.
Tim Hermach has a hard time believing a city can power its biomass power plant without cutting trees, though.
"You wouldn't heat a boiler for 15 minutes with the amount of waste in twigs and wood chips you pick up from the ground," said Hermach, president and founder of the Native Forest Council.
Several municipalities in Michigan have proposed building biomass power plants that strictly burn wood, White said.
But while timber is an abundant resource throughout the state, White isn't so sure there's enough to go around.
"If every biomass facility that's been proposed in the state actually opened, we wouldn't have enough wood resources," White said. "We would start cutting trees just for the sake of it. I don't know of anyone who wants to go cut down healthy trees."
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