If we really mean all of the above, there is another energy resource Delaware already has in abundance – the OG green renewable energy source, but rarely talked about: wood.

Delaware has about 352,000 acres of forestland – about one-quarter of the state – and roughly 78% of it is privately owned. According to the Delaware Forest Service’s Facts about Delaware’s forests data, these forests are renewable resources that can produce wood products while growing another generation of trees.

Yet Delaware's forest-products industry has declined, leaving fewer markets for the wood our forests produce. The state's strategy calls for revitalizing the forest-products industry and identifies bioenergy as one potential market for low-value wood.

And Delaware has a substantial supply of lower-value wood available for an energy market. A 2012 U.S. Forest Service study, the Greater Delaware Area Forest Biomass Resource Analysis, estimated that approximately 125,000 green tons of woody biomass could be available each year without depleting the resource.

Modern wood-energy systems can be far cleaner than traditional wood burning, using advanced combustion technology and emissions controls to substantially reduce particulate matter and other air pollutants.

Delaware needs to determine whether its incinerator law is preventing wood energy from being considered – and remove that barrier if it is. Wood heat, biomass power and other modern wood-energy applications should not be excluded simply because they may fall under regulations intended for solid-waste incineration.

Delaware’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act recognizes sustainably harvested biomass as renewable energy, yet the state’s incinerator law may stand in the way of using it.

A wood-energy market could also help keep Delaware's forests as forests. According to DNREC’s Emissions Reduction: Forests and Urban Trees, Delaware is losing more than 1,000 acres of forest each year to development.

A forest that is managed, harvested and regenerated can remain a forest. A forest converted to a subdivision cannot.

For Delaware, wood energy could be a win-win-win. It could provide another locally available, renewable energy source, create a new market for lower-value wood and support Delaware's forest-products industry, and help keep privately owned forestland from being lost to development.

If Delaware really means all of the above, wood belongs in the conversation. Lawmakers should amend or repeal the incinerator restrictions that stand in its way.

Read the full Caesar Rodney Instutitue article at caesarrodney.org/post/all-of-the-above-energy-means-wood-too. Sign CRI’s affordable energy petition at caesarrodney.org/affordable-energy-petition.