Chapter 26 West of the Rockies Regional Roadmap

Transcription

1 Chapter 26: West of the Rockies Regional Roadmap 392 Chapter 26 West of the Rockies Regional Roadmap Our objective is to outline a roadmap for sustainable bioenergy production in the western United States.The West is characterized by wide variation in climate, productivity, distribution and abundance of feedstocks, and soil and water resources, which determines the ability to produce bioenergy. It is also characterized by densely populated coastal and inland cities and extensive sparsely populated regions. These conditions provide unique opportunities and challenges for bioenergy development. The West has many unique physiographic features including the Desert Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain Region, Pacific Islands, California and Alaska. Each area has different natural and cultural resources that interact to influence bioenergy development. The Desert Southwest has high solar radiation, but water is scarce and population centers are concentrated. The Pacific Northwest has abundant precipitation along the coast coupled with semiarid to arid inland areas. Woody biomass is available at higher elevations where precipitation is greater. Grain production, with its accompanying straw as a potential feedstock, is concentrated in the interior Palouse. The Rocky Mountain States have both woody and herbaceous agricultural biomass scattered widely throughout the area. In contrast, the Pacific Island areas are very isolated with biomass and climate conditions that strongly favor small scale energy production. California, with new and impending policies, has a wide range of natural, agricultural, and demographic conditions that make it a proving ground for local and national energy development. Finally, Alaska has a low population density and vast amounts of woody biomass, most of which is inaccessible with current infrastructure. A common finding throughout the West is that significant land areas are devoted to timber and/or grazing. There is also a very high proportion of land that is under federal, state, or tribal jurisdiction making it subject to policies that are unique to the West. Finally, fire management across these areas is an important and strategic objective. Western agriculture is highly dependent on irrigation water derived primarily from snow pack driven runoff. The most productive and strategically located areas are these irrigated lands. Managing water resources and effects of projected climate change are therefore important for animal, crop, energy, and human needs. Concentrated human population centers along coastal areas and concentrated animal feeding operations such as dairies and feedlots present opportunities for using solid waste as as bioenergy feedstocks. The natural, cultural and human resource diversity of the West, coupled with a mix of widely dispersed and concentrated feedstocks provide platforms for both large and small- scale energy production facilities using appropriate but diverse technologies. We have these six recommendations: Feedstock Development The potential for Western U.S. feedstock development is often underestimated because the materials are widely distributed. Key resources include woody biomass from forest lands, crop residues from cereal and grass seed production (Figure 1), municipal solid waste in large population centers (Figure2), minor concentrations of prunings from commercial orchards, and manures or other by- product streams from existing timber and agricultural industries. These feedstock sources are highly diverse and may be widely dispersed. Because of their complexity, distribution and relationship to population centers, a critical focus for the West should be on integrated or multi- feedstock biorefineries with logistics being

2 393 Sustainable Alternative Fuel Feedstock Opportunities, Challenges and Roadmaps for Six U.S. Regions the key for development. Research and development activities should be focused on flexible, mobile processes to accommodate feedstocks that are disbursed and on concentrated energy production near major populations centers. Synchronization and Harmonization of Policy The diversity and complexity of Western bioenergy systems makes synchronization and harmonization of policy and development of sustainability guidelines very challenging. Variations in feedstock definitions in both national and state policies often exclude some types of biomass prevalent in the West. For example, the US EPA Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) Renewable Biomass definition restricts the use of fiber from federal lands, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the land area in many western states (Figure 3). Better coordination of federal and state bioenergy policies would significantly improve resource use and management, as well as communication and cooperation among Tribal, County, State and Federal Agencies that create regulations, administrate rules, issue permits or manage western lands. To achieve this goal, current policy definitions, conflicts, and restrictions need to be reconciled and optimized across all jurisdictions unique in the West. Modeling Western Regions Current biophysical, economic, and life cycle models that are being used to estimate potential biomass supplies and sustainability impacts are not parameterized correctly for Western conditions. National and local data sets generally are more complete and of greater reliability in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. Policies based on these data and corresponding simulations do not accurately address bioenergy potential in the West. Current and developing models should be validated using western data sets where possible. The range in reliability and completeness of data from various data sets should also be taken in to account when validating models. Thus, more data collection and evaluation are necessary in the West. Developing more complete data sets for this region should be an immediate goal. Fire Management and Bioenergy Development Public lands and National forests are disproportionately located in the Western Region (Figure 3). Such lands are managed for various resource objectives and governed by national and regional policy. This influences the availability of biomass for bioenergy production. It also influences access to power transmission lines and conversion facilities. One major resource objective in the West is management of catastrophic fires that threaten the conservation values of public lands, and lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The complexity of Federal, Tribal and State land ownership presents unique biorefinery siting challenges. Nonetheless, interest in woody biomass from forest land has increased because of the threat of catastrophic fire and the potential to serve as a bioenergy feedstock. Currently, logistics and economics may not support the cost of energy production based on energy production alone, but many challenges in getting woody biomass from the forest to processors might be overcome by combining energy production with several other ecological and economic benefits of biomass removal. Biomass removal and utilization projects should integrate habitat restoration, stand improvement, reduction in wildfire potential, improvement in rural economies, and energy production as part of their design criteria. Existing equipment, contractors, and other idle infrastructure associated with the timber industry may be resources that can be converted to combined energy and woody biomass removal systems that serve multiple ecosystem objectives. Irrigation and Water Issues Water is a very critical resource in the West. Because of limited precipitation over much of the region, the West is dependent on surface water derived primarily from snow packs in upper elevations. A significant amount of land in the region is irrigated (Figure 4). With water these areas are highly productive and can provide various feedstock sources for bioenergy production. Irrigated lands are usually reserved for producing food crops, but in the West food and fuel do not have to be in conflict. Crop rotation, water availability, and differences in seasonal water use influence how irrigated lands are

3 Chapter 26: West of the Rockies Regional Roadmap 394 managed. Annual and perennial bioenergy crops and harvest of food crop residues can fit in to existing irrigated cropping systems. Integration of bioenergy production into irrigated land should be explored using an agricultural systems approach. Irrigated lands of the West can provide food as well as energy crops if existing water resources are managed holistically. The effect of climate change is very important in the West. Changes in climate are expected to result in a progressively smaller snowpack and earlier runoff. Many current energy and irrigation storage systems have insufficient volume to accommodate these changes in annual flow. Earlier runoff will most likely reduce water availability during the summer and increase hydropower production at a time of year when it is least needed and less valuable. Improved and additional water storage capacity may be required to meet climate change induced seasonal distribution and supply of water. Research Questions Development of a bioenergy economy tailored to the West should consider all of the factors discussed above. The market mechanisms needed to jump start bioenergy production will be different in the West than in other parts of the U.S. Regionally specific research on the sustainability of various feedstocks including: invasiveness, conversion efficiencies, environmental effects, residue removal, nutrient and water use efficiencies, and land use conversion effects is needed. The West already plays a unique, dominant role in specialty crop development and production and is well suited to pursuing the development of specialty crops for bioenergy production. It is commonly stated that marginal lands will be utilized to meet bioenergy needs. Large areas of the West include saline and alkali soils and face frequent drought and/or extreme cold or heat. Marginal lands such as these will require research to economically and sustainably produce biomass feedstock, but they should not be overlooked. The wide array of feedstock sources, with both dispersed and concentrated distributions in the West, and interrelationships between feedstock supply and conversion technologies will dictate the operation size and business model that can be used in a given area. Large amounts of concentrated biomass favor large scale technologies such as gasification, while widely dispersed biomass favors small scale technology. Research is therefore needed to address multiple energy platforms and collection infrastructures throughout the West. Systems to utilize widely dispersed woody biomass, specialty crops, crop residues and dedicated energy crops all need to be pursued. Figure 1. Feedstock distribution in the West.

4 395 Sustainable Alternative Fuel Feedstock Opportunities, Challenges and Roadmaps for Six U.S. Regions Figure 2. Population distribution Figure 3. Public land ownership in the West

5 Chapter 26: West of the Rockies Regional Roadmap 396 Figure 4. Distribution of irrigated land in the US Workshop participants for this region: Don Wysocki, Oregon State University Stefanie Aschmann, NRCS, John Hickman, John Deere, Don Cordes, Iowa Agriculture BioFibers, Alan Di Vittorio, UC Berkeley, Danny Goodson, NRCS, John Heisenbuttel, Council on Sustainable Biomass Production, Steve Kaffka, UC Davis, Biomass Collaborative, Bill Orts, USDA ARS, Marcia Patton- Mallory, US Forest Service, Jody Endres, University of Illinois,