1-7 IAN Straw into Gold

 Is bio-mass energy production gaining steam in the Northwest? It would be good for some farmers, that’s for sure.  I’m David Sparks and I’ll be back to discuss this topic in a moment. Most of us are familiar with the concept of bio mass producing energy by now. Governor Otter talks about it a lot and it makes sense. Bio-mass is organic junk…like weeds, wood shavings, corn husks etc. To show how viable this concept is, The Idaho Public Utilities Commission is taking comments on how much Idaho Power Company ratepayers should pay the developers of a biomass power project at an Emmett sawmill where sawdust would be turned into electricity. Here’s Idaho Public Utilities Commission spokesperson Gene Fadness describing the biomass plant : “These are small co-gen projects. Thy co-generate as they buy product of some sort of manufacturing process.” But it doesn’t have to be a manufacturing process. What about straw from grass seed growers, what about all the environmental fiascos that confront farmers who want to burn stubble in their fields. As the Oregonian newspaper puts it  “After decades of controversy over the air pollution and safety hazards of field burning,  growers hope to start spinning their ocean of post-harvest straw into gold.