At UC Davis , Murphy was part of a work group sponsored by California to figure out how to use fire-control residue for bioenergy and biofuel production . That effort stalled .
“ Part of the problem ,” he says , “ is that the models for fire risk are not precise enough , and not calibrated and validated across a wide variety of terrains and ecosystems . As a result , CARB doesn ’ t yet feel confident about attaching a financial incentive ” to utilizing wood harvested in forest resilience efforts .
Tim Robards , division chief of Cal Fire ’ s Climate and Energy Program , manages the Forest Health Grants program and agrees the unavailability of LCFS credits for forest biomass is a serious problem . His agency ’ s grant program has a half-billion dollars under management , some of which is meant to fund its Wood Products and Bioenergy program . Robards is a forester with a Ph . D . from UC Berkeley in statistics . “ I count trees in sophisticated ways ,” he says with a laugh . He describes wildfire science at the moment as “ squishy ” when it comes to carbon-emissions savings . “ You have to predict the probability of fire returning to an area ,” he says , “ and predict the fire intensity . Basically it ’ s a modeling exercise , but it involves landscape-level fire models dealing with different treatments and different local conditions and different weather scenarios .”
Robards says he also wishes the LCFS program somehow included property administered by the federal government , which manages more than half of the forest land in the state . And he recommends that the program establish woody biomass from Northern California as a priority .
Meanwhile , as California stretches its energy and climate change policies in new directions , the rest of the world is developing similar solutions . Murphy is excited about the expansion of policies much like the LCFS . And , he points out ,
there ’ s important work being done at the federal level . Meanwhile , he says , the technology continues to evolve , largely as a response to these policies .
“ Nobody has cracked the code yet ,” he says , “ but there are some ambitious policies in place and some innovative technology is on the way . There isn ’ t anything that ’ s going to save us anytime soon , but we can hope to get there .”
Eric Johnson is a freelance writer for several Northern California publications . Before moving to Sacramento in 2017 , he held senior editorial roles at various newsweeklies and magazines in the Bay Area for 20 years .
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