Here is my latest post to Rep. Bob Goodlatte (House Agriculture committee) after speaking to him at his Agriculture Conference in Staunton VA on Monday concerning issues for the up coming Farm bill.
I also got to button hole Bruce Knight,USDA under secretary for marketing and regulation, Arlen Landcaster, Chief of The National Resource & Conservation Service (USDA), and John Bricker, Virginia State Consevationist
Dear Mr. Goodlatte, Mr. Bricker and Mr. Goldberg,
Thanks for hearing my concerns about regulations to support validation og Carbon Credits for the Sequestration of Charcoal i the soils at your Ag Conference Monday.
This soil technology could be the perfect Republican environmental plank. A truly conservative position to take on the stewardship of the planet , a real form of "Creation Care".
After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology
can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.
Below is my review of these efforts in the Academic and private sectors, please forward this to all the experts you know, if you think it merits their time and support.
Sen. Byrd and Sen. Rockefeller of W VA and Rep. Udall had very positive responses to Terra Preta soils technology proposals presented to them.
Thanks for your attention
Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
E-mail: shengar at aol.com
(540) 289-9750
Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra Preta Carbon Soil Technology.
The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first concrete steps in that direction;
Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.
Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Biomass by 2030
by Ralph P. Overend, Ph.D. and Anelia Milbrandt
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The organization 25x25 (see
25x'25 - Home) released it's (first-ever, 55-page )"Action Plan" ; see
http://www.25x25.org/storage/25x25/d...ActionPlan.pdf On page 31, as one of four foci for recommended RD&D, the plan lists: "The development of biochar, animal agriculture residues and other non-fossil fuel based fertilizers, toward the end of integrating energy production with enhanced soil quality and carbon sequestration."
and on p 32, recommended as part of an expanded database aspect of infrastructure: "Information on the application of carbon as fertilizer and existing carbon credit trading systems."
I feel 25x25 is now the premier US advocacy organization for all forms of renewable energy, but way out in front on biomass topics.
There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture , I forgot the % that is waste, but when you add all the other cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG, the balanced number is around 24 Billion tons. So we have plenty of bio-mass.
Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.
TerraPreta has the potential to solve AGHG emissions WITHOUT having to change basic human behavior. We can keep burning fossil fuels till the cows come home and not worry about Global warming. Using an integrated, local, cellulose to charcoal process , most all GHG from burning Fossil fuels can be cheaply converted to soil food via Ammonia Scrubbing technology;
CO2 to Ammonium Bicarbonate, NOx to nitrogen and putting the end product Charcoal in the soil reduces the soil GHG emissions of CH4 & N2O by 30%!
http://www.eprida.com/hydro/powerplant.htmMore Coal & Oil...........MORE Soil
It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of G. I. T. , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who's back round I don't know have joined.