On July 20th, 2011, EPA published its Final Three-Year Deferral Rule which deferred for three years a requirement for biomass burning facilities to account for their net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. EPA plans to conduct an examination of the science associated with biogenic CO2 emissions from bioenergy plants in the next three years, and the Agency has already begun this process.
The State of California has a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation which mandates that California’s transportation fuels should be at least 10 percent less carbon intensive by the year 2020. The LCFS does not mandate the adoption of any particular fuel, but it will likely drive demand for biofuels (and possibly also drive demand for natural gas, hydrogen, and electricity).
On August 9, 2011, a group of environmental organizations, including The Wilderness Society, provided comments (see below) to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on proposed revisions to the Regulation for the Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (MRR).
The State of California continues implementing and developing a suite of innovative climate policies including a Renewable Portfolio Standard, a Regional Planning and Smart Growth program, and a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. A cap-and-trade rule will supplement these efforts and is expected to begin in 2013.
Tree waste - sawmill byproducts, urban tree trimmings, and tops and limbs leftover from timber harvesting - can be a nearly carbon neutral energy source when burned for heat and electricity. However, burning whole trees can actually produce more greenhouse gases than even coal or oil - and 98.5% of mill waste is already being utilized.
National forests, national parks and other federally-owned forests in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Alaska hold extraordinary amounts of carbon and therefore play an important role in defending against climate change. According to United States Forest Service data, the ten national forests in the United States that store the most carbon per forested acre are all located in western Oregon, western Washington and southeast Alaska. Moist late-successional forests west of the Cascade Range mountains are among the Earth's greatest carbon storing ecosystems.
