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Duke Energy Corp. says it is the lead investor in a program that plans to reforest 1 million acres in seven lower Mississippi Valley states to produce offsets for carbon emissions.
Duke says its initial investment will result in the planting of more than 1 million trees on 1,700 acres in Arkansas.
The program, called GreenTrees, is managed by Virginia-based C2I. It will plant 302 hardwood and 302 cottonwood trees on each acre it reforests. The carbon absorbed by the trees can be calculated and used to offset the amount of carbon that utilities and other industries produce.
The use of such offsets is encouraged in the carbon-control proposal now working its way through the U.S. Congress. And Charlotte-based Duke (NYSE:DUK) is preparing for the day when such legislation takes effect.
“Federal climate-change legislation will set the stage for an active carbon-offset market in which the demand for domestic offsets will significantly exceed supply,” says Keith Trent, Duke Energy’s chief policy, strategy and regulatory officer. “We view GreenTrees as the most innovative afforestation and carbon-offset project in the United States.”
Carey Crane, founding partner of C2I, says the program pays private owners for reforestation, allowing C2I to develop verifiable offsets for specific volumes of carbon. GreenTrees enters into 70-year contracts with landowners. Landowners can still use the land for other purposes, such as commercial recreational activities. And they have the right to pursue other sources of revenue, including timber sales, under limits set by the program.
The lower Mississippi Valley comprises 25 million acres in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois. It is the nation’s second-largest watershed. More than 18 million acres of it have been cleared.
Duke Energy supplies electricity to western parts of the Triangle including Durham and Chapel Hill.
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