Biochar Provisions Included in the Amercian Power Act

May 14, 2010 by timbercommunity

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.  Biochar is charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass. Its primary use is not for fuel, but atmospheric carbon capture and storage. Biochar is of increasing interest because of concerns about climate change caused by emissions of carbon dioxide. Senators Kerry and Lieberman released a discussion draft of the legislative plan on Wednesday.

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."

More info: biochar-international.org