• Ellis, Eric Richard Jr.
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

A computer simulation model comprising the various industries that use wood including a hypothetical wood-based electric power industry and the forest itself is presented. The implications of the model for evaluating the feasibility of burning wood to generate electric power in the State of Maine are discussed. Emphasis is placed upon the potential availability of wood for multiple use, the price changes for wood resulting from such use, and the future costs of generating electric power from wood given those price changes. It is shown that with necessary investment in forest management, there is sufficient wood potentially available for several times Maine's present production of pul¡r, lumber, and electric power. The use of wood for electric power, would, however, result in higher prices for wood used as a raw material by the pulp and lumber industries, and might require taxes on alternative energy sources to make wood competitive.