Editor’s Note: The following is posted as a courtesy, at the request of the organization below, and for the convenience of our membership. Action is requested on this item but is not required. – MAB
Correct Wood Definition Needed on All Federal Energy Bills
Forest landowners are in danger of having their wood excluded from emerging energy markets. To ensure wood can be included in new energy-producing facilities, a broad definition of wood must be used in federal energy bills. A Senate energy bill that will craft the future of emerging energy markets is expected to come up for a vote very soon. The Forest Landowners Association (FLA) needs you to contact your Senators to support a broad definition of wood in the Senate energy bill.Click the above blue Take Action! link to send FLA’s email letter to your Senators now.Unfortunately, the current Senate energy bill does not use the broad, Farm Bill definition of renewable biomass (“…other plants and trees…”) that FLA wrote and for which we advocate. Without this specific broad definition, restrictions on wood could inhibit alternative energy producers from creating wood-using facilities – facilities that could provide new markets for wood products.
Although President Obama’s Department of Agriculture is fully and publicly in support of the Farm Bill definition, it is doubtful that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will add the Farm Bill definition to any Senate energy bill.
Please send FLA’s email letter asking your Senators to act now to add the Farm Bill definition to the Kerry/Graham/Lieberman bill – and to all energy bills – before it is released around April 26. To send FLA’s email letter to your Senators, click the above blue Take Action! link at the top of the page.
Please also forward this alert to your friends and fellow landowners. For more information about federal energy legislation, view FLA’s position statements.
