[Terrapreta] carbon trading

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Richard,

Don't ever call it a "carbon tax"!  A micro-finance mechanism could be a way to turn any "carbon payments" into investments.  I think there should be "carbon tax credits" paid by the US government as an incentive to make charcoal-for/into-soil.  But, there isn't any such wisdom in the US tax code (yet?!).  With international micro financing, though, this could be the way to participate in a most real and meaningful way with making the money from paying for or buying "carbon credits" do real climate mitigation work in the places where it needs to be done.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Haard<mailto:richrd at nas.com> 
  To: Folke Günther<mailto:folke at holon.se> 
  Cc: Terrapreta<mailto:Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> ; Gwen Hunter<mailto:baymuse at cablespeed.com> 
  Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:20 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] carbon trading


  Thanks for your comment Folke, good thinking material


  In dollars 370 euro the Swedish carbon tax would be $577 or at 6 metric tons charcoal per hectare $3460. Such a scheme would be quite a incentive for farmers to stagger production on land with short rotation woody crops or like you say with industrial hemp as an annual crop. In  midwest grain belt with corn at $5.00/bushel and say 150 bushels per acre gross income to farmer would be say $1850/ ha and by collecting the stover the farmer could pyrolyse in place and receive additional income or better yet develop a rotation system where every third or fourth year a dedicated biomass crop would result in a soil building subsidy with real cash benefits to the farmer if pyrolysed into charcoal.  


  Energy economics are changing very fast here in western Washington and our farm, a native plant nursery will begin to this seriously about using producer gas from pyrolysis. I have done my model building on the basis of willow coppicing as we have markets for willow stakes and possibly more. In next month I am expanding our coppice grove to about 6 acres of 5 native species that have varying amount of gross production. It is not unreasonable to speculate that by 2010 when the grove comes into full production gas and diesel will be $10/ gallon. 


  The difficulty is how to get the US consumer to support the concept of a carbon tax on top of these escalating energy economics. I can see how someone on the producer side can use a carbon tax to offset costs for energy. I am attending a local (Whatcom County) Democratic party 'election agricultural platform committee' in 2 days and will attempt to tie together three related proposals that are now up for discussion . 


  These are
  support the use of carbon sequestration
  support use of agricultural waste to generate electricity
  legalize the growing of industrial hemp.


  Hemp unfortunately comes with baggage and this is why I tend to avoid it. But as the $0.51/ gallon federal subsidy for corn ethanol has been a boon to grain-belt farmers perhaps some way to pay for sequestration would give a boost to small scale local food production. 


  Rich H






  On Mar 13, 2008, at 12:38 PM, Folke Günther wrote:


    See my blog (from the bottom) and the article ’Carbon sequestration for everybody..’ I have since long proposed that if somebody has to pay for emitting carbon dioxide (e.g. a tax), anybody that can sequester the same amount of carbon (e.g. as charcoal in soil),should be paid the same amount, as a ‘negative’ tax. It’s just fair.
    Moreover, just imagine if you culd be paid an amount corresponding to the Swedish carbon dioxide tax, 1 SEK (€ 0.1)/kg carbon dioxide = 3.67 SEK (€0.37) /kg charcoal buried in the soil. One tonne (easy to fix!) would give you € 370, a good extra on the other harvest. Imagine you really go for it and grow industrial hemp for carring. It could easily give 20 tonnes dw, with a charcoal yield of at least six tonnes per hectare.
    The problem is not really the charring, but the politics around the creation of a fail carbon tax.
    The methods to reverse the global warming are there, and a lot of willing people.
    We are just waiting for the poitical descisions.  
     
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
    Folke Günther
    Kollegievägen 19
    224 73 Lund, Sweden
    home/office: +46 46 14 14 29
    cell:               0709 710306  skype:  folkegun
    Homepage:     http://www.holon.se/folke<http://www.holon.se/folke>  
    blog: http://folkegunther.blogspot.com/<http://folkegunther.blogspot.com/>
     

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    Från: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org> [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org>] För Richard Haard
    Skickat: den 13 mars 2008 16:19
    Till: lou gold
    Kopia: Terrapreta
    Ämne: Re: [Terrapreta] carbon trading
     
    In for example your arena -  A startup proposal  for application of carbon credits to a outreach program such as training and demonstration? Worth an inquiry to these groups? It seems such a program would develop its own inertia and like micro-financing and could have large additive effects. Perhaps some that are out there and not accounted for yet. Otherwise contracts for carbon sequestration credits would better match the large scale operations of electrical utilities, etc. 
     
    Rich
     
     
    On Mar 13, 2008, at 2:31 AM, lou gold wrote:



    Here's the link to an interesting Wall Street Journal article about carbon trading.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120535230851631199.html?mod=googlenews_wsj<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120535230851631199.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>

    -- 
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