Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, February 17, 2025…
- The tiny town of Scotia, California on the state’s remote redwood coast was built up entirely around a large sawmill. An attached biomass plant that burns the wood waste for electricity stands in the middle of a climate debate in the region.
- Some college aid experts in California are tying a recent drop in student aid applications to fears around immigration enforcement.
- Thousands of unionized University of California workers are planning to strike next week. The 20,000 healthcare, research and technical workers are represented by the University Professional and Technical Employees Local 9119 union.
A Biomass Plant Stands Amidst A Climate Debate On Northern California Coast
The low thrum of the biomass plant permeates the town of Scotia, which used to be a company town owned by the Pacific Lumber Company. Next to the plant sits a massive pile of wood chips, sawdust and other waste from the nearby sawmill. The pile is as tall as some of the houses with rear windows facing the plant. This mountain of wood waste is burned to generate electricity.
“At this point, we’re getting about 20% of our total electricity needs from that one local biomass plant in Scotia,” said Richard Engel, the Director of Power Resources at the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, or RCEA.
This community-owned electric provider in the region buys the power produced by the biomass plant. Looking at this industrial behemoth belching out smoke, the first words that come to mind likely aren’t “renewable energy.” But according to the state of California, it is. “Biomass is viewed differently because you’re taking carbon that, in the absence of the power plants, would still go into the atmosphere as the wood rots or breaks down or through other processes,” said Engel.
But, the way these plants work, and their role in the climate crisis, is why activists like Wendy Ring want to see this plant shut down. “Even if, over the long term, burning biomass is carbon neutral, it’s not climate neutral, it’s not warming neutral,” Ring said. “Because it starts warming as soon as it hits the atmosphere. And then that is starting feedback loops of other things like melting of permafrost that emits methane and promoting wildfires. So we have to get out of this spiral.”
Fewer California High School Seniors Are Applying For Financial Aid
Fewer California high school seniors are completing federal financial aid applications than in past years, which some analysts say is a sign that students may fear the Trump administration will use their sensitive data for immigration enforcement.