Entergy Carbon Sequestration and Offsets

• Entergy plants thousands of trees annually on its landholdings, sequestering thousands of tons of CO₂ every year. 
  
  

• Entergy in partnership with Trust for Public Land and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is acquiring 1,600 acres of land adjacent to the Tensas River Wildlife Refuge, restoring bottom land hardwood habitat on marginal croplands and donating the improved land to USFWS, which will manage the property. This will sequester 640,000 tons of CO₂ over the next 70 years.

• Entergy in partnership with the Conservation Fund, USFWS and Friends of the Red River, dedicated the Red River Wildlife Refuge in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and established a 600 acre sequestration site that will create 225,000 tons of CO₂ offset credits over the next 70 years.

• Entergy has leased 30,000 tons of CO₂ offset credits from the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association (PNDSA). Credits are generated by growers who have agreed to use direct seed agriculture methods for at least 10 years. Direct seed cultivation avoids soil losses from oxidation associated with traditional farming techniques and also reduces the growers’ fuel use and soil erosion.

• Entergy has funded Winrock International and the Central Arkansas Resource Conservation Council to acquire easements from eligible landowners in the Arkansas delta. The funding will be used to convert 500 acres of marginal cropland to bottomland hardwood forest over the next two years. Within 80 years, the planted trees are projected to sequester over 200,000 tons of CO₂.

• In December 2003, Entergy became the first U.S. utility to purchase carbon emissions credits from geological sequestration projects. These projects capture CO₂ vent gases that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and then place them into oil-bearing geologic formations for use in enhanced domestic oil recovery.  Under this program, Entergy plans to purchase over 2,800,000 metric tons of CO2e emission reduction credits by the end of 2005.

• Entergy is a participating member of the UtiliTree Carbon Company. UtiliTree is a consortium of 41 utilities organized by the Edison Electric Institute to invest in a portfolio of forestry projects that manage GHG emissions, particularly CO₂. A $3.2 million investment in eight domestic and two international projects will capture over 3 million tons of CO₂ over the life of these projects.

To view carbon sequestration and offsets programs of all BELC members, visit What's Being Done in the Business Community section of this site.