Theses and Dissertations Collection

Forest biomass is source of sustainable heat and electricity supplied through forest management activities. Sustainably utilizing forest biomass for energy provides a host of benefits including: supporting and diversifying the domestic energy industry, reducing the cost of hazardous fuel treatments, rural economic development, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, and habitat improvements. Despite the aforementioned benefits the pace and scale of development has been slow and the role of policy intervention continues to be challenged. Numerous barriers to utilizing forest biomass are documented in the literature including unfavorable economics, supply chain deficiencies, and public opposition. Despite decades of industry innovations and prolific research, the bioenergy industry continues to lack policy intervention that effectively minimizes the barriers to biomass use. However, it is not just effective policy that is challenged, but also the role of government in shaping how forest resources are governed. This thesis focuses on two gaps of research pertaining to the use of forest biomass for energy purposes. First, despite being well documented in the literature, barriers are not understood in the context of necessary policy responses and there is little empirical data on biomass barriers from a forest bioenergy facility perspective. Specifically, unanswered questions include: How do the aforementioned barriers affect facility operations? And how do existing or proposed facility companies respond to changes in particular policies? Second, there are few empirical studies that explore the following questions: How do forest bioenergy networks influence policy intervention?