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Friday, Mar. 20, 2009

Electric cooperatives to announce carbon offset option

A group of electric cooperatives will be soon be offering their customers the option to offset their “carbon footprint” by protecting Georgia forests, using a surcharge on their monthly power bills.

The program, which will use scientific methods to measure the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by specific Georgia pine forests, will be managed by a Macon-based company.

The group plans to announce further details of the “Keeping Forests in Forests” program this morning at a news conference in Cochran, with Gov. Sonny Perdue as a speaker.

Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas” that is considered a major contributor to global warming.

Trees “breathe” the gas in and sequester it while releasing the oxygen people need to breathe. The proposed program would not plant new trees or create new forests but rather would pay to ensure that existing forests are not cut down for development.

Power4Georgians, a group of 10 electric cooperatives, will lead the effort, with more EMCs across Georgia expected to join later, according to a news release from the company.

Power4Georgians also is behind the proposed new coal-fired power Plant Washington in Washington County. Its member EMCs include Upson EMC, Central Georgia EMC and Washington EMC.

The consortium announced they were developing the program last May and initially said it would be available to members of Power4Georgians EMCs last fall.

Today’s Keeping Forests in Forests announcement will be made at Earl Barrs’ tree farm in Bleckley County. Barrs and forestry consultant Blake Sullivan, both of Macon, are partners in Carbon TreeBank LLC, a Macon company that will facilitate the program.

Initially, forests protected by the program will be on west Georgia land owned by Wells Timberland, Barrs said.

“They were seeking alternative revenue streams for their forests,” he said.

“With the declining forestry industry, the concern is that if we lose our markets and we don’t have other sources of revenue, and forest landowners are not recognized for the value they’re contributing to the environment, then the forest could again go back to what it was at turn of last century.”

By 1900, forests had mostly been razed for farming.

About 200 to 300 acres of Georgia’s existing forestland are lost every day to development and other land use changes, according to Power4Georgians.

Georgia has a carbon registry program that encourages participants to promise not to cut their trees for at least five to 10 years so the carbon benefits will last.

The Keeping Forests in Forests program, which doesn’t utilize the Georgia carbon registry, only requires a three-year contract of Wells Timberland. Barrs said that’s partly because it’s the first, and future contracts could be longer. But it will be up to each timber owner.

Eventually Barrs, who also serves on the board of the state Department of Natural Resources, hopes to enroll his own forestland, too, he said.

The amount of sequestration provided by each stand is certified by a third-party forestry consulting business and is based on the age of the trees, the soil type and other factors, he said.

According to the Power4Georgians news release, the scientific methodology used to develop the program is based on Duke University’s Forest-Atmosphere Carbon Transfer and Storage Experiment, a U.S. Department of Energy-funded study begun in 1994 to measure the reaction of forests to elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry also provided technical advice, the release indicated.

EMC members who participate in the program can use an online calculator to estimate their household’s carbon footprint, choose how much they want to offset and pay a monthly fee from $5 to $25 to accomplish that, according to the Power4Georgians news release.

Barrs said the EMCs will report to each customer how much forestland he protected and where it is.

“We hope to have our maps on Google, so you can google your stand and see exactly where your trees are, and even go visit them in person,” he said.

To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.