In Part 1 of this 3 part blog series, we examined projections for continued variability and intensity of weather patterns and risks over the coming decades. Increasing our use of sustainably produced and regionally tailored energy crops and biomass to meet our growing demand for all forms of energy and products is not expected to be a panacea. But today’s blog post examines how it can be an important part of both our near-term and long-term strategy.
Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound on earth. Today, we have demonstrated, industrial scale—and most importantly, economically competitive—processes to liberate and purify cellulose and other bio-based sugars from a wide range of agricultural and woody biomass. Those bio-based industrial sugars can then be used to produce renewable chemicals, fuels, plastics, alcohols, solvents, materials, polymers, fibers—in fact, anything that can be produced from a barrel of petroleum can also be produced from biomass.
Producing clean, renewable biofuels, biochemicals, and biopower from sustainable energy crops such as switchgrass offers increased carbon sequestration and reductions in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. Further, removing or reducing the destabilizing geopolitics of energy security from the global climate conversation puts us on much better footing for global dialogue and cooperation.
In addition to the longer-term, global climate-related benefits, it is important to also recognize the more immediate and local benefits of shifting from a petroleum based economic engine to a carbon based economic engine.
Thriving communities = resilient communities. Sourcing fuels, power, chemicals, and products domestically and locally results in significant net gains in local employment and wealth, particularly in rural and agricultural communities where biomass is produced, and where economic sustainability is often elusive. New jobs created in manufacturing renewable fuels, chemicals, and products are dwarfed by the number of supporting jobs in construction, farm production and management, supply chain logistics, and transportation.
Small, distributed, and locally adapted = enhanced security and quicker recovery. There’s not a single silver bullet, but rather a portfolio of regionally tailored renewable energy solutions, which is actually a significant benefit for minimizing impacts and speeding recovery from any large-scale weather event. Climate-related impacts are often greatest near coasts where mega-scale refineries and energy infrastructure are most vulnerable. Spreading them out in distributed systems builds stronger communities, and simultaneously minimizes system-wide ripple effects by building in circuit breakers for disruptive events.
Sustainable land use = moderated impacts and more rapid restoration. Sustainability of our resource base and ecosystem requires us to assign appropriate consideration and value to land use. When we ignore the natural roles of wetlands, floodplains, riparian buffers, watersheds, grasslands, and the like we suffer long-lasting—and sometime irreversible—consequences. Careful consideration of sustainability in land use minimizes the negative consequences of unsustainable land use, which is often exacerbated by weather extremes, while preserving the amazing natural ability of ecosystems to self-repair.
In the coming years and decades, one interesting prediction is that increasing frequency and severity of major weather events will disproportionately affect coastal and low lying regions, and drive population migration inward. Those same inland regions are also projected to be some of the lowest cost and most sustainable regions for producing biofuels, biochemicals, and biopower, further reinforcing the value of building up robust capacity and infrastructure for biomass-based energy today.
In our next blog, we’ll conclude this series by focusing on some of the things that can accelerate our progress toward a sustainable carbon-based economy.
By Kelly J. Tiller, Ph.D., President and CEO
