Presenter; 92nd General Conference, Oct. 6, 2023
Thomas is a visionary innovator who has worked over 30 years in the forestry, agriculture and biomass energy sectors where he has served in education, farm and forest management, commercial agricultural lending, natural resources academic research, start-ups and leading non-profits. Since his tenure in academia, he has consulted globally over the past 12 years in the areas of bioenergy innovation, commercialization in the areas of forestry, agriculture and bioenergy. He has been interviewed by Canadian national and provincial media on a myriad of forestry topics including forest fuels management and bioenergy.
Tom is currently working as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Member of Yosemite Clean Energy LLC, where he and their team have launched the first commercial biomass-based green hydrogen & RNG plants in the California marketplace. Yosemite under a locally owned model, plans to develop independently owned biomass plants in California and across the USA to supply green hydrogen to the fuel-cell market, focusing on heavy-duty trucks and buses.
Mr. Hobby through his consulting company Biostewards Inc. has recently completed a biomass study on nearly 2+ million acres covering the Tahoe and Plumas National Forests for a tribal client and is proposing to complete a Sierra wide Biomass assessment and plan for assisting the USFS and partners to achieve the goal of treating 500,000 acres per year through active forest management. Biostewards and Yosemite Clean plans to linking these biomass studies to the proposed development of 50 Yosemite Clean bioenergy projects to produce green hydrogen, renewable natural gas and Fischer-Tropsch fuels in the California Region over the next decade.
Over the past 2 years, Thomas has led local restoration efforts in the Sierra Nevada on several privately held properties, including the Calvin Crest forest and Sequoia restoration projects. Biostewards has been researching and developing an integrated wood business to address the abundance of dead and dying timber, waste biomass, and overstocked forests across California, the Western USA and Canada. His company has a holistic way of managing our forests by improving forest stewardship practices that benefit forest health, restore ecosystems and provide renewable, zero emissions fuels at no cost to government.
Tom holds an MBA (Agribusiness), and a MSc. Agriculture, from California Polytechnic University (SLO) - USA, and a MA Economics from the University of Victoria, Victoria BC Canada. He is also a a Professional Agrologist in British Columbia.