May 14, 2010
Important Biochar Provisions Included in the Amercian Power Act
International Biochar Initiative is pleased to announce that the American Power Act (APA), a plan
to secure America's energy future, contains several important
provisions to support deployment of biochar as a climate mitigation
and adaptation tool. Senators Kerry and Lieberman released a
discussion draft of the legislative plan on Wednesday.
For
the last several years, IBI has been working with members of Congress
to incorporate appropriate language on biochar within US climate and
energy legislation. IBI members and others have helped to educate
policymakers about biochar, and why it should be included in US
cap-and-trade legislation to help reduce emissions of greenhouse
gases and as a way to sequester carbon in soil. Soil carbon
sequestration through biochar also promises to enhance the soil
resource upon which our food, renewable fuel and fiber supply
depend.
The APA contains three specific provisions related to
biochar. The first provision is under the domestic offset program,
under Title II, Subtitle A - Global Warming Pollution Reduction.
Under Part D - Offset Credit Program for Domestic Emission
Reductions, Section 734 lists projects that are eligible for offsets.
This list includes "projects for biochar production and
use".
The second and third biochar provisions fall under
Title II, Subtitle C - Achieving Fast Mitigation, Part II - Black
Carbon.
Section 2211, Report On Black Carbon Sources, Impacts,
And Reduction Opportunities instructs the EPA produce a report that
includes a section on "research and development activities
needed to better characterize the feasibility of biochar techniques
to decrease emissions, increase carbon soil sequestration, and
improve agricultural production, and if appropriate, encourage
broader application of those techniques".
Section 2214
under the same Part II, titled Enhanced Soil Sequestration,
authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a grant program
to "conduct research, develop, demonstrate, and deploy biochar
production technology for the purpose of sequestering carbon from the
atmosphere." The program can fund up to 60 facilities and states
that the Secretary "shall ensure that facilities receiving
grants under this section represent a variety of technologies and
feedstocks and are geographically dispersed."
Debbie
Reed, Executive Director of the IBI, said: "The American Power
Act, like some bills before it, recognizes the potentially vital role
of biochar in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and
benefiting agricultural and rural economies. Sustainable biochar is
an important piece of the energy and climate puzzle. This 2,000
year-old practice converts agricultural waste into a soil enhancer
that can hold carbon, boost food security, and discourage
deforestation. It's one of the few technologies that is relatively
inexpensive, widely applicable and quickly scalable. We are very
pleased that the APA includes significant support for the powerfully
simple tool of biochar...
To our US members: Please contact your legislators
to educate them about biochar. We have many resources on the IBI
website, such as one-page
fact sheets and FAQs
that you can use. Tell your representatives that biochar is a
cost-effective form of carbon offset that provides many ancillary
benefits to our agricultural sector. Biochar projects authorized
under the APA legislation could help start biochar industries that
will create jobs and boost agricultural production while saving
energy and reducing emissions.
(Souce: IBI's
US Biochar Policy page.)
United States Biochar Policy
On Thursday, September 24, 2009, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, and
four cosponsors (Senators Max Baucus and John Tester of Montana, Senator
Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico), introduced
the “Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act
of 2009.” The bill establishes a loan guarantee program to develop
biochar technology, initiates a program of biochar landscape restoration
projects on public land, and authorizes a competitive grant program to
fund research on biochar characteristics, impacts and economics.
In the face of climate change, drought is an ever growing problem in
the Western US, exacerbated by water-sucking weeds like tamarisk (salt
cedar), which can consume 200 gallons of water a day, per plant. These
invasive weeds, along with other excess biomass in the form of
beetle-killed trees, forests with dangerous fuel loading, and dense
pinyon-juniper thickets that have invaded native sagebrush ecosystems,
are ideal feedstocks for biochar.
In addition to providing loans for technology development and grants
for research, the legislation directs the U.S. Geological Survey to
assess the amount of feedstock in the form of invasive weeds and
hazardous fuels on the public lands, the amount of carbon and biochar
production potential in that feedstock, and the potential for water
savings if it were removed.
Senator Reid’s office indicates that water savings achieved through
the bill could be substantial: “The potential for millions of gallons in
annual water savings from the elimination of water-robbing invasive
tamarisk will be particularly meaningful in Nevada. Elimination of this
scourge in our watersheds can offset a significant portion of our water
needs.”
By using Western invasive weeds and dangerous fuel loads as feedstock
for biochar production, the bill seeks to match undesirable material on
the landscape that would otherwise be expensive to eliminate with a
process that requires a large source of woody material to make valuable
products and provide critical ecosystem services like carbon
sequestration.
Below is a summary of the WECHAR bill. The
full text is available here.
Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act
of 2009
Section-by-Section
Sec. 1. Short Title. Water Efficiency via Carbon
Harvesting and Restoration Act of 2009.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec.3. Definitions.
Sec. 4. Resource Assessment.
Directs the U.S. Geological Survey to assess the amount of
feedstock in the form of invasive weeds and hazardous fuels on the
public lands, the amount of carbon and biochar production potential in
that feedstock, and the potential for water savings if it were removed.
Sec. 5. Technology Research.
- Directs the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to develop
loan guarantee programs for development of mobile and fixed but
temporary biochar production technology that can be deployed in remote
locations and use excess biomass as feedstock.
- Identifies that production units produced under these guarantee
programs need to be primarily tasked to work with the Bureau of Land
Management, National Park Service, and Forest Service on invasive
tamarisk in the Mojave Desert, pinyon-juniper buildup in the Great
Basin, and bark beetle-killed trees in the Intermountain West.
- Provides criteria for loan guarantee programs to ensure appropriate
use and protection of funds and likelihood of success of the ventures
accessing the program.
Sec. 6. Existing Technology.
- Directs the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to develop
loan guarantee programs for construction or acquisition of existing
biochar production technology that can be put directly into use.
- Identifies that production units produced under these guarantee
programs need to be primarily tasked to work with the Bureau of Land
Management, National Park Service, and Forest Service on invasive
tamarisk in the Mojave Desert, pinyon-juniper buildup in the Great
Basin, and bark beetle-killed trees in the Intermountain West.
- Provides criteria for loan guarantee programs to ensure appropriate
use and protection of funds and likelihood of success of the ventures
accessing the program.
Sec. 7. Deployment.
- Directs the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to develop
3-year programs for use of the technology developed in section 5, and
identifies that initial programs shall be carried out by the Bureau of
Land Management using Great Basin excess pinyon-juniper, by the National
Park Service using Mojave Desert tamarisk, and by the Forest Service
using Intermountain West bark beetle-killed trees.
- Directs the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to develop
plans for use of the technology developed in section 5, and identifies
that these shall use Great Basin excess pinyon-juniper, Mojave Desert
tamarisk, and Intermountain West bark beetle-killed trees.
Sec. 8. Application and Market Research.
- Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to implement competitive grants
programs to develop markets for biochar and bioenergy, analyze the
production costs versus the economic benefits of biochar production,
potential performance of biochar production in carbon sequestration
programs, and compares biochar production with other biofuel production
systems.
- Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to implement competitive grants
programs to perform full environmental review of biochar production and
use, including water savings, environmental benefits of biochar use in
agricultural settings, and any potential adverse environmental impacts.
- Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to implement competitive grants
programs to research and analyze potential uses for biochar in
landscape restoration in different ecosystems and soil types.
Sec. 9. Authorization of Appropriations.
Authorizes the appropriation of such funds as are necessary to carry out
sections 4 through 8.
