Trendal -
Nothing can sustain the eternal-growth ideology on which current US transport is founded. It's a dinosaur that's been shot in the hind brain.
Biomass resources are entirely sustainable, given the collective agreement to manage them rather than merely exhausting them. In this, they are wholly different to say solar, which keeps on shining regardless.
The range of benefits CWM offers is unique, and I've strong confidence that it will be widely developed at the necessary village scale.
And, as I noted above, anyone investing in such plants has the survival of their local woodlands as a prime business concern.
There may be cultures incapable of agreeing good management practice, and some may try simply de-foresting conifer areas for pump-&-dump frauds, but I guess they'll be in the minority, and will anyway be self-defeating.
Given that the forests are patently finished without benign action, it seems simply defeatist to assume that all cultures are as stupefied as is that of the prevailing US business-fool. I would assure you that they're not !
regards,
Backstop
Edit PS: Re Elephant grass biomass, see the various disadvatages of Agribusiness Biofuels in my earlier post; also consider their minimal carbon-banking, biodiversity, sub-crops, wind shelter, etc.
Trees need planting if we're going to enjoy forests ! In Europe we have understood this for almost a thousand years - maybe it's a new idea in the US ???
"The best of conservation . . . is written not with a pen but with an axe."
(from "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold, 1948.