As West dries and burns, US Senators mull biochar bill
Could biochar prove to be the one carbon-cutting, environment-benefitting strategy that could win support from both US Democrats and Republicans? We’re not sure, but we were pretty excited to discover that a bipartisan (really!?) group of Senators has introduced a proposal to promote research and funding for biochar projects.
Biochar is a type of charcoal produced by sort of baking, rather than fully burning, dead branches, plant waste and other types of biomass. Because of its stability, biochar can be used to lock away carbon in the soil … something many have proposed as a possible way to fight climate change. (It’s not a new strategy, however: the pre-Columbian people of the Amazon Basin used biochar, or terra preta, to build soil fertility.)
Rather than aimed directly at climate change, the proposed “Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act of 2009” seeks to tackle the dual threats of invasive weeds and dwindling water resources, both especially large — and growing — problems in the Western states. Under the proposal, a number of US agencies would not only launch biochar studies and demonstration projects, but would offer loan guarantees for biochar technology developments.
Among the benefits such a programme could provide both:
- A way to reduce the growth of salt cedar, an invasive plant that now covers up to 1 million acres of land in Western states and can consume 200 gallons of water per plant each day. Those plants could instead be used to produce biochar and biofuels; and
- A way to eliminate the fire danger created by a pine beetle infestation that’s killing millions of trees in the West, by converting dead trees into biochar.
Five Senators are co-sponsoring the bill: Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Max Baucus and John Tester of Montana; and Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah.
