Assessing Carbon Storage on Public Lands
Government-owned land must play a greater role in limiting carbon emissions, both through carbon capture and storage and increased renewable energy generation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Thursday in a speech at the global climate change summit in Copenhagen. “America’s lands and oceans can serve as clean energy producers.
They can serve as carbon catchers. And they can be buffers against the impacts of a rising tide and a changing climate,” Mr. Salazar said.
The United States Department of the Interior manages one-fifth of the nation’s land mass and oversees natural resources and offshore areas. Mr. Salazar cited a new study by the United States Geological Survey that found that plants and soils in the lower 48 states now store about 90 billion metric tons of carbon and continue to absorb about 30 percent of the country’s emissions from fossil fuel combustion each year.
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