The Southern U. S. and Potential for Bioenergy
Stretching from the Atlantic Coast to the deserts of Texas and covering 834,937 square miles, the southern United States is a land of contrast and beauty. Sparkling beaches, majestic mountain ranges, fertile valleys, desert sands, pine forests, and hardwood forests can all be found in the South. The 13 southern states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia (at right).
In 2003, estimates indicated that over 95 million people resided in the South, of which about one quarter live in rural areas (below left). These rural areas include over 60% of the counties and parishes in the southern states (Economic Research Service 2004).
The South tends to lag behind the rest of the United States in terms of income and education. According to U. S. Census Bureau data (1999), the median household income in the South was approximately $5000 less than the U. S. average. Unemployment rates and the poverty rate tend to be above the national average. While a large percentage of the population are high school graduates, the average education level is still less than the national average. Approximately 21% of the population has a college degree, again slightly lower than the national average. On a positive note, the rate of home ownership in the South is higher than the national average. Regional and national socioeconomic averages are shown in the graphic below right.
The economy of the southern states is as varied as the people. Yet, natural resources serve as the economic base for many of the southern rural communities. These natural resources include the Southern forests. In 1997, the value of the Southern forest industry was calculated at $83 billion in total industry output (Abt and others 2002). The South provides over 60% of the U. S. timber supply and is home to over 1/3 of the wood products jobs in the United States. Wood products jobs make up 6% of the workforce in the South. The graph at right shows the percentage of manufacturing and wood products jobs in the South.
The Southern forest can serve as a source of unutilized woody biomass for the production of bioenergy and other bio-based products. This includes biomass from harvesting and logging residues, thinning, and wood processing residues. The quantities of these biomass sources are summarized in Table 1. This table was constructed by the Southeast SunGrant Center using Forest Inventory Analysis data and state forestry data. State biomass fact sheets are also available at Forest Bioenergy.
More information about the SunGrant Initiative and the regional centers can be found by visiting their websites: SunGrant Initiative, Southeast SunGrant Center, and the South Central SunGrant Center
If the trees and sawmill residues in the South now being used to produce wood pulp were instead converted to ethanol, approximately 6.5 billion gallons (162 million green tons [Johnson and Steppleton 2005] x 40 gallons per green ton) of transportation fuel would be added to the nations supply of transportation fuel. If only the difference in the Souths peak harvest rate of about 200 million green tons vs. its current harvesting rate of about 162 million green tons, roughly 1.5 billion gallons per year of ethanol would be available to meet the consumer demand of about 150 million gallons of gasoline per day. When forest residues are added, the volume of transportation fuel becomes even larger. Another incentive for using wood to produce cellulosic ethanol is that jobs are created in rural America, since that is where the wood is located. The countrys balance of payments is improved, since ethanol would replace imported oil, and the supply of ethanol is not affected by pipeline disruptions, since ethanol is not transported through pipelines.
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