Senator Jesse Kiehl came to Haines to speak with his constituents. Among other things he explained how carbon sequestration could play a role in the state’s economy. We spoke with Kiehl about the new scheme.

Kiehl: “One of the pilots they have in mind is the Haines state forest. It’s potentially a big shift in how the state is looking at the Haines state forest or parts of it. And so I want to make sure that that’s on Alaskans radar screen here in the Chilkat Valley.” 

KHNS: “So how would that work?” 

Kiehl: “The notion behind what DNR is considering there are many, many, many different flavors of this carbon credit notion. But what DNR is considering is selecting certain acres and inventorying, the trees and the understory and the soils, figuring out how fast things grow and how much carbon is stored there. 

And then entering into contracts with these big carbon credit brokers to get credits to get paid for additional carbon that’s stored there above what just happens naturally, either by avoiding logging, or by active management, maybe thinning stands so that the remaining trees grow faster. There are some other notions that would get them to a calculation of additional carbon that’s stored there. And then big companies who voluntarily want to say we’re carbon neutral, right? Read the wrapper on your KitKat bar, and they’ll say they’re carbon neutral. What does that mean? Well, in part, it means they bought some credits, to offset what they put up the stack back at the chocolate factory, or the wrapper factory, so that it gets to what they think they can reasonably say as net zero. 

There are a lot of different carbon credit registries out there, there are a lot of different ways to calculate this. Some of them are pretty serious. Some of them are straight up marketing, there is money out there. And so the governor is interested in the legislature passed a bill giving him the authority giving DNR the authority, this coming year to start exploring where Alaska could get some of that money, obviously, it’s going to be really important that we understand selling carbon credits on a piece of State Forest, doesn’t mean you can’t pick berries, that doesn’t stop you from hunting their fishing there or running a four wheeler around. Now, it may or may not have something to do with other uses of the wood. So those are conversations that as DNR moves forward, folks need to be actively involved in, here in Haines.”

KHNS: “So you register a certain acreage of forests for a year for 10 years, or in perpetuity? How’s it gonna pan out?”

Kiehl: “The conversations we had about the bill DNR is looking at at entering into contracts that would run in the neighborhood of 40 years or up to 55 years. So some significant timeframes involved here.”

KHNS: “How do you tell if you join a legitimate carbon sequestration program versus a scam?”

Kiehl: “Ah, well, that is a trick. And a lot of that is going to fall to the Department of Natural Resources to choose the registries that make the most sense, you know, it’s in Alaska’s interest to join legitimate ones, because we don’t want our reputation to be as participating with a bunch of scam artists. But it’s also not entirely clear that every registry has the best standards.”

KHNS: “So there are other programs that are already functioning like that, what type of revenue would come out? If we set aside, you know, 1000 acres, for example.”

Kiehl: “You know, as we worked on the bill, the Governor’s initial discussion was of tremendous revenue potential to the state, he was looking at hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And I think as we looked at this, legislatively, we came up with much, much smaller estimates, especially in the first years, finding our way. So I think, you know, the governor is interested in a project in the tenant or state forest in Fairbanks, the interior, the Haines state forest, and we are probably looking at something numbers in the single digits of millions potentially. And that may be several years out. For the Haines area or for the program statewide, it’s really going to depend on how much acreage they select and what grows there, you know, what the balance is between the interior and Southeast? So I can’t yet predict how much would come out of this region for revenue.”

KHNS: “Would the revenue go to the state or to the borough?”

Kiehl: “That revenue would be state revenue, we put a little provision in the bill that 20% of it should go to the Renewable Energy grant fund, and that just helps Alaskans with more sustainable power projects. And when you look at how we divide those up, how that money goes out, the goal is on saving Alaskans money on energy, and also in the process, having it be non fossil fuel energy. So that’s a statewide program. In terms of the borough itself, if the state is using state lands, there isn’t a direct revenue stream. There is an open question and this is one for the lawyers. It is not a settled question. I want to be really clear about that. There is an open question about whether the commercial interest in State Land might be subject to property tax from the borough within borough boundaries. And that’s going to be an interesting conversation. I had that with the Department of Law. I had that with DNR. We didn’t initially agree about it, but I raised that flag in a meeting with the mayor yesterday, and that’s something that they’ll want to look at and talk to DNR about as DNR moves forward within Haines borough boundaries.”

KHNS: “Thank you.”