Biomass Energy Cooperative
About Us
The Biomass Energy Cooperative (BEC) unites biomass owners and renewable power generation facilities across Central and Northern California’s forest and agricultural regions—home to the largest concentration of biomass in the United States, including extensive wildfire-damaged timber. By strategically locating operations near both forest and agricultural biomass sources, transportation costs are minimized while maximizing sustainability and efficiency.
BEC's members collaborate to harness the full potential of biomass, generating renewable energy, biofuels, clean hydrogen, and high-quality biochar for agricultural and environmental applications. Biochar not only enhances soil health and crop yields but also serves as a powerful tool for carbon sequestration, helping to mitigate climate change by locking carbon into the soil. Through shared innovation and collective action, BEC is driving forward a cleaner, more resilient future—turning biomass into sustainable energy and regenerative solutions for communities, businesses, and the environment.
BEC empowers its members by identifying and developing market opportunities, providing technical support, and sharing critical resources and information to enhance their operations. Through collaboration, innovation, and strategic support, the cooperative helps members optimize biomass utilization, expand revenue streams, and implement sustainable solutions that benefit both their businesses and the environment.
Our Team
Christopher James, JD | President
Mr. James has practiced commercial law as an attorney in Portland Oregon since 1974. His practice he focused on business litigation and transactions, with a concentration in distribution, technology and real estate. Recently his focus moved to shareholder realization through limited auction sales and corporate development. He has been general counsel to companies that became NYSE listed and other private companies that reached more than 1B in annual revenue.
In the energy vertical Mr. James has represented clients with innovations and applications in solar technologies, polycarbonate composites, passive solar architecture, and related fields. Mr. James was also counsel to The Modern Energy Conference in Denver Colorado, a premier annual alternative energy conference including solar, wind, wave, nuclear and geothermal technologies.
For the last 30 years Mr. James has enjoyed the highest rating (AV) awarded from his peers and judiciary. Most recently he founded and operates a non-profit that investigates stem cell therapy for a fatal childhood disease and he has helped organize new innovations in alternative (clean) energy to bring to market. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Oregon (BS), and his law degree is from the University of Oregon Law School.
Greg Nilan | CFO
Mr. Nilan is a management consultant who has provided financial and operational consulting servicers over the past forty years. His focus has been financial and market feasibility, financial projections, development and operations for a wide variety of real estate projects. He received his degree from Washington State University and California Polytechnic University Pomona specializing in finance and business in the hospitality industry. His areas of expertise include airport terminal concessions and major hotel and resort projects throughout North America as well as all types of food and beverage operations. Additionally he has been involved in development, financing and operations at major visitor destinations including sports arenas and stadiums, amusement parks and Olympic Games.
Arek Fristensky, JD | VP
Mr. Fristensky is an attorney with experience assisting businesses with civil litigation and commercial transactions, as well as experience in environmental and natural resources law, including water rights litigation. He earned his law degree at Lewis and Clark Law School, a Masters in Hydrologic Science from University of California at Davis and an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at the University of Oregon.
Lakshmi Muthukumar, Ph. D. | CSO
Dr.Muthukumar is a chemical engineer with expertise in biofuels, computational chemistry, and data science with an emphasis on cheminformatics. Her doctorate thesis was on computational studies of the enzymatic hydrolysis of ligno-cellulosic biomass. She has experience working in data science, machine learning and AI projects for various companies and academic teaching experience in the past. She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech University(Lubbock, Texas), and a integrated dual degree in Chemical Engineering(B.E.) and Physics(M.Sc.) with honors from Birla Institute of Technology and Science(Pilani), in India.
Our Members
The members of the Biomass Energy Cooperative include renewable energy producers and suppliers of biomass products committed to sustainable resource utilization and innovation. Our Cooperative is new and is growing—and as the Cooperative expands, so do the opportunities.