[ Florida ] A handful of Florida utilities are considering using wood and crops, called biomass, as an energy source. A Georgia company plans to build a plant in Tallahassee converting wood waste to gas that it would sell to the city utility. Progress Energy has agreed to buy electricity from a plant in Central Florida that uses crops grown specifically to be used to produce power. Fueling the plant with pulpwood, or wood suitable for use in paper manufacturing, would create other issues. One concern is the conversion of natural oak hammocks and pine forests into timber farms, said Joshua Dickinson of the nonprofit Forest Management Trust. Dickinson advocates certifying wood through the Forest Stewardship Council. The council will only certify wood coming from [plantation/ monoculture] forests planted on agricultural land or property converted from natural forests before 1994, he said.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
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