BILL NUMBER: S2903A

SPONSOR: RITCHIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to the use of school
district funds to install and maintain wood pellet, wood chip or other
biomass burning boiler systems

 
PURPOSE:

To permit school districts to use district funds for the installation
and maintenance of wood pellet, wood chip, or other biomass burning
boiler systems.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends § 3602(6)(a) of the Education Law by adding a new
subparagraph authorizing a school district to use any funds otherwise
dedicated for renovations or repairs to a building within the district
to pay for the installation and maintenance of a wood pellet, wood chip,
              

or other biomass burning boiler system.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 
EXISTING LAW:

Section 3602 of the Education Law 3602 relates to the apportionment of
public money to school districts employing eight or more teachers.
Subdivision 6 of the section outlines the apportionment for capital
outlays and debt service for school building purposes.

This bill adds a new subparagraph to subdivision 6 authorizing school
districts to use any funds otherwise dedicated for renovations or
repairs to a building within the district to pay for the installation
and maintenance of a wood pellet, wood chips, or other biomass burning
boiler system. There are no other provisions of law related to the
school district maintenance of a wood pellet, wood chip, or other biom-
ass burning boiler systems.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Giving rural schools the option of using school renovation funds to
install wood pellet, chip or biomass burning boiler heating systems
dramatically helps rebuild Upstate's economy and create new jobs and
employment opportunities. When isolated rural school districts renovate
or replace their heating systems, a biomass boiler system can be an
environmentally sustainable and cost effective alternative to foreign
fossil fuel fired boiler systems. In the rural community of Edwards,
N.Y., for example, the cost of heating oil would have to drop to as low
as 87 cents a gallon to be as competitive as wood chips to heat the
school district.

In neighboring Vermont, over 20% of its students attend schools that use
bio-fuels for heating. Modern institutional high-temperature systems are
much more environmentally friendly than traditional wood burning
systems. Over the course of a typical winter, a biomass boiler system
for a 200,000 square-foot school produces less particulate emissions
than six residential wood stoves, according to Vermont's Biomass Energy
Resource Center (BERC) and its School Energy Management Program (SEMP).
Vermont's Biomass Energy Resource Center points out that unlike oil, gas
and coal which add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, burning wood adds
essentially no new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, reducing the
school's carbon footprint.

By encouraging biomass, wood chips and pellets energy dollars are kept
local. Money spent on oil and gas drains the local economy while commu-
nities that use biomass create sustainable local forestry and agricul-
tural jobs. Biomass reduces greenhouse gases and acid rain because,
unlike fossil fuels, it contains no sulfur. Woodchips and pellets help
improve forest health by providing a market for low grade wood, provid-
ing incentives to forest owners to practice sustainable forestry.
Furthermore, biomass is substantially less expensive than oil and
propane and in some cases slightly less expensive than natural gas. Even
ash residue has a positive economic impact, as left over ash can be used
as an agricultural fertilizer as a replacement for lime, which adds to
biomass's value as a sustainable fuel resource.

Enabling rural districts to install and maintain wood pellet burning
boiler systems is extremely cost effective and allows districts with
limited budgets to maximize resources. For the aforementioned reasons it
is imperative that this bill is enacted.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017: S.2903
2016: S.6941A

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.