In his first few days in office, President Donald Trump declared an energy emergency, stating that the nation’s domestic energy supply is “precariously inadequate” and poses a threat to national security.
Additionally, he announced a $500 billion private sector investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States. At the intersection of these two lies a transformational opportunity for an unsuspecting sector: America’s forests.
The Post and Courier recently chronicled the potential doom of South Carolina’s $23 billion timber industry. Our state has more forest acreage now than it has had in more than 100 years. However, South Carolina’s bountiful supply of trees faces a declining market, spelling trouble for forests and the communities that rely on them.
Unlike in Western states where most forests are owned by government entities, almost all forested land in South Carolina is in the care of private landowners. Under optimal conditions, these “working forests” are a resource that provides owners with a financial incentive for proper management. But we are not experiencing optimal conditions.
This is not just a local problem; it’s a story echoing across the Southeast and beyond. Between January 2023 and March 2024, nearly 50 forest product mills reported they would be closing or curtailing production, resulting in more than 10,000 people losing their jobs.
These shriveled markets cripple rural communities and leave private landowners with few incentives to maintain their forests. The ripple effects are stark: Unmanaged forests increase wildfire risks, disrupt ecosystems and lead to a cascade of economic challenges for communities that have depended on forestry for generations.
This doesn’t have to be the future, though. With innovative ideas and targeted investment, forests can be transformed into engines of growth that help drive us into the Trump administration’s proclaimed Golden Age of America.
At the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, the nation’s largest not-for-profit organization dedicated to America’s working forests, we’ve seen firsthand both the challenges facing working forests and the immense potential they hold. Our work focuses on finding innovative solutions to sustain forest-dependent communities here in South Carolina and across the country.
One such innovation lies in the growing market for biomass energy. By converting low-value timber, such as small-diameter trees and other wood waste that typically lack strong markets, into wood pellets and other bioenergy sources, biomass offers the dual benefit of a sustainable market for forest managers and a renewable energy solution for our nation’s growing demands for power.
A glimpse of what’s possible with biomass can be seen in Louisiana.
In the early 2000s, Louisiana’s timber industry found itself in a similar situation to the one facing South Carolina. The rising use of digital communication slashed demand for paper, and the 2008 housing crisis diminished the need for lumber. Forest managers were left with few options.
At the same time, a new market was on the rise. As countries sought to meet carbon emission reduction goals, wood pellets presented a carbon-neutral alternative to coal in power plants. Seeing the potential, pellet producers came to Louisiana, creating new jobs in rural areas where the timber industry was struggling and providing new markets for forest owners.
Many potential innovative products may spur new lifeblood for America’s working forests, such as cross-laminated timber, nanocellulose and biochar. However, biomass offers a unique opportunity to marry the industries of rural America with the technologies of the future, especially when those technologies require massive amounts of energy.
A simple query to ChatGPT uses roughly the same amount of energy it takes to brew three cups of coffee. This might seem small, but multiplied by the hundreds of millions of queries processed by AI models every day — with a million queries draining the amount of power needed to power 30 homes for an entire month — there is a huge environmental and energy drain.
By integrating biomass in a diversified energy portfolio, we can build a resilient grid that can power developing industries while ensuring economic and environmental sustainability for decades to come.