@article{30f535b73f754c2581bb7fbe3521c9c9,
title = "Local-scale carbon budgets and mitigation opportunities for the northeastern united states",
abstract = "Economic and political realities present challenges for implementing an aggressive climate change abatement program in the United States. A high-efficiency approach will be essential. In this synthesis, we compare carbon budgets and evaluate the carbon-mitigation potential for nine counties in the northeastern United States that represent a range of biophysical, demographic, and socioeconomic conditions. Most counties are net sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, with the exception of rural forested counties, in which sequestration in vegetation and soils exceed emissions. Protecting forests will ensure that the region's largest CO2 sink does not become a source of emissions. For rural counties, afforestation, sustainable fuelwood harvest for bioenergy, and utility-scale wind power could provide the largest and most cost-effective mitigation opportunities among those evaluated. For urban and suburban counties, energy-efficiency measures and energy-saving technologies would be most cost effective. Through the implementation of locally tailored management and technology options, large reductions in CO2 emissions could be achieved at relatively low costs.",
keywords = "Carbon, Climate change, Energy, Land useland use",
author = "Raciti, {Steve M.} and Fahey, {Timothy J.} and Thomas, {R. Quinn} and Woodbury, {Peter B.} and Driscoll, {Charles T.} and Carranti, {Frederick J.} and Foster, {David R.} and Gwyther, {Philip S.} and Hall, {Brian R.} and Hamburg, {Steven P.} and Jenkins, {Jennifer C.} and Christopher Neill and Peery, {Brandon W.} and Quigley, {Erin E.} and Ruth Sherman and Vadeboncoeur, {Matt A.} and Weinstein, {David A.} and Geoff Wilson",
note = "Funding Information: This work was convened through the Science Links program of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) with funding from the Jessie B. Cox Trust, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Merck Family Fund, the Northeastern States Research Cooperative, the Orchard Foundation, the Sudbury Foundation, the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, and in-kind support from Cornell University. We thank William Yandik, Switzer Leadership Fellow at HBRF, for his contributions toward the outreach portion of this work. We also thank Richard McHorney of the Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, who helped with data acquisition for Essex and Middlesex Counties, and David Fox, who assisted with the analysis of CO2-emission data for Grafton and Coos Counties. Finally, we thank the National Science Foundation–funded Hubbard Brook, Harvard Forest, Plum Island, and Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long Term Ecological Research sites. Funding Information: Commercial-scale wind energy. For this category, we used 200-meter-(m) resolution simulated wind-resource data to evaluate the potential for commercial wind power generation across the counties in New England. Our analysis was focused on terrestrial wind resources. Areas with class 3 (6.4 m per second mean speed at 50 m height) or greater wind power potential were considered commercially viable sites for wind power generation. Developed areas were excluded as potential sites. The information on land availability for wind power generation was determined using the 2001 national land-cover database of Homer and colleagues (2004). The wind-resource data, obtained from MassGIS (the Massachusetts Office of Geographic Information, Boston), were originally developed by AWS Truepower (Albany, New York) as part of a project funded by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (now part of the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority), the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and Northeast Utilities.",
year = "2012",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1525/bio.2012.62.1.7",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "62",
pages = "23--38",
journal = "BioScience",
issn = "0006-3568",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "1",
}