New Reports Highlight Benefits of Bioenergy in the San Joaquin Valley

The Clean Air Task Force and Rand Corporation have just issued reports on the potential for clean energy development in the San Joaquin Valley. Both reports find that bioenergy has an important role to play in reducing climate and air pollution, providing clean energy, and generating good jobs and economic development.

The Clean Air Task Force report finds that: “California’s San Joaquin Valley (“SJV” or the “Valley”) is in a unique position to benefit from the clean energy transition given its existing industry, land, skilled workforce, and clean energy resources. The transition also presents an opportunity to address some of the significant challenges the Valley faces, including water constraints, transitioning agricultural land, pollution, and socio-economic disparities.” The report recommends diversifying clean energy resources, embracing bioenergy projects that can efficiently use existing local biomass resources, and reducing bureaucratic barriers to clean energy generation, transmission, and clean energy manufacturing.

The Rand Corporation report, which analyzes different clean energy portfolios for the Valley, also found that bioenergy provides unique benefits, including:

• Creating more jobs than solar or wind power
• Using less land than solar or wind power, and
• Using less water as a feedstock for hydrogen than other types of renewable hydrogen

You can read the Clean Air Task Force report here and the Rand Corporation report here.