Comment Log Display

December 14, 2010

California Air Resources Board
Byron Sher Auditorium
1001 I Street
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Air Resources Board:

On behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I would like to
urge the Air Resources Board not to exclude federal lands from
carbon offset programs, as currently stated on page 9, 10, and 16
of the Compliance Offset Protocol for U.S. Forest Projects (Part V
of the Proposed Regulation to Implement the California Cap and
Trade Program). 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with private,
not-for-profit groups like The Conservation Fund, has reforested
and permanently added over 40,000 acres to the National Wildlife
Refuge System in recent years, funded almost entirely by carbon
offset funding from private sources.  These are lands that were
historically forested but had been cleared during the last century.
Restoring forest cover to these lands will actually increase the
rate of carbon uptake and provide a very real (commensurate with
scale) benefit in our collective efforts to limit carbon dioxide
build-up in the atmosphere.  For example, collectively these
efforts have led to the sequestration of over 30 million tons of
carbon, and three of our “Go Zero” projects with TCF have been
validated under the standards of the Climate, Community &
Biodiversity Alliance at the gold level (the highest). 

We anticipate seeing many more such projects in the future, if
legitimate forest carbon offset protocols do not disadvantage
federal lands. However, we are concerned that Part V of the
Proposed Regulation to Implement the California Cap-and-Trade
Program as written does not make federal land eligible for forest
offset projects. Though the Climate Action Registry’s Forest
Protocol made projects on federal lands eligible subject to
legislative or regulatory approval, the current proposed regulation
has excluded federal projects entirely, including Restoration
Projects. 

While we appreciate the added complexity of including federal lands
in the Forest Protocol, we believe that removing the provision on
federal land eligibility sends the wrong message and would
discourage investment in these types of programs, not only in
California but all across the country as well. Failing to grant
eligibility for suitable federal lands would effectively prohibit
projects on National Wildlife Refuges to qualify under this offset
program, making it more difficult to attract new capital for
forest-carbon projects and slowing our existing work in this area.
Furthermore, this protocol is likely to serve as a benchmark for
future national offset protocols, and we are concerned that they
may set a standard for excluding federal lands in offset programs
in the future.

We are pleased that the proposed regulations recognize the large
potential for emission reductions and removals on federal lands,
and we appreciate your careful consideration of the legal and
regulatory implications of these standards. But we believe our
agency’s successful record of carrying out carbon offset projects
combined with the huge potential to continue to build on these
beneficial programs across the more than 150 million acre National
Wildlife Refuge system are strong arguments for including these
lands in this emerging offset program. We further encourage the
Board to consider the unique management practices and mandates of
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as it may not be necessary to
enact the same protocols across all federal lands. Because of the
mission and management of the National Wildlife Refuge System,
carbon offset lands are likely to be managed for perpetual forest
cover far into the future.  

In conclusion, as you consider improvements to the proposed
regulations to implement the California Cap-and-Trade program, we
hope you will make the appropriate changes in the Forest Protocol
to allow our ongoing carbon offset programs on National Wildlife
Refuges to qualify under the ARB’s Forest Offset Protocol. It would
be unfortunate to suspend these valuable public conservation
benefits and successful partnerships prematurely. To further
discuss this please contact Mark Shaffer (mark_shaffer@fws.gov) at
703-358-2603.

Sincerely,

Gabriela Chevarria
Science Advisor
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service