Carbon Management on Federal Lands: A DOI Perspective

Strategic restoration of previously altered ecosystems, including those with abandoned mine lands, is a key solution emerging to address increasing atmospheric CO2 and provides the Department of the Interior (DOI) with a creative way to engage non-traditional partners in conservation actions that will conserve important resources while reducing the overall amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.  Active and abandoned mine lands drastically alter the landscape, reducing the land's ability to naturally sequester carbon. Currently, over 4.4 million acres of land are being impacted by coal mines with about 62 percent (2.7 million acres) located in the eastern United States. If approximately 50 percent of the coal-mined land in the eastern United States is reforested, the resulting increase in sequestered carbon would potentially be 330,000 tons of CO2 per year.

Another important option for mitigating atmospheric CO2 involves geological sequestration.  Since DOI owns or has a material interest in over 500 million acres of land in the United States, and beneath these Federal lands there is the potential to geologically sequester CO2 in oil and gas reservoirs, deep saline reservoirs, and abandoned and unmineable coal seams.  Thus, there is potential for significant emission reductions in the United States if geologic sequestration can be implemented on a large scale.  

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is poised to play a key role in reducing the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere through terrestrial and geologic carbon sequestration. There is an opportunity to reduce DOI's carbon footprint through specific mitigation actions, such as minimizing or offsetting residual carbon emissions through a National assessment of viable geologic sequestration sites, development of a comprehensive terrestrial carbon sequestration program, and proactive partnering with outside entities to reduce their carbon output while restoring high-priority wildlife habitat across the country.