EPA eases up on pollution from biomass power

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Under pressure from some members of Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is easing up on regulating global warming pollution from facilities that burn biomass for energy.

The agency says it needs more time to figure out whether biomass is a green fuel.

Some members of Congress complained that new rules regulating industrial carbon dioxide emissions would make it hard to develop new biomass energy plants that burn trees and branches thinned out of forests. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson notified them today that the EPA would exclude biomass from a rule requiring large polluters to reduce their heat-trapping pollution.

Developing biomass energy is part of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s plan for putting people back to work by thinning forests at high danger of wildfire.