“Forest biomass has been recognized by the President as a key part of an ‘all of the above’ solution to our nation’s energy needs,” said Dave Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO. “Unfortunately, this bill discourages the use of forest biomass in direct contradiction to that approach.  By excluding forest biomass from the definition of ‘Renewable Energy’  and inserting legally complicated requirements, the bill creates uncertainties that will discourage forest biomass use by making compliance too expensive and vulnerable to lawsuits”

The bill defines “Qualified Renewable Biomass,” using terms and criteria from national forest management that have been the source of protracted litigation for decades.  The new definition would overlay the existing framework of well–established federal, state and local laws, which currently govern private forest practices.

The bill further requires that qualified biomass be assigned a “carbon intensity factor,” ignoring the long-standing international recognition of sustainable biomass combustion in place of fossil fuel combustion as beneficial for the climate.

“We have seen how the complicated approach taken in this bill has worked on federal lands, and we can’t afford to introduce the same legal gridlock on private lands,” Tenny said.  “Furthermore, requiring new carbon regulations for biomass similar to approaches for fossil fuels casts biomass as though it were part of the problem rather than the solution.  Any way you look at it, the bill writes forest biomass out of the clean energy equation.”

Tenny concluded: “To achieve the goals of the President and the many in Congress who recognize the important contributions of biomass energy, this legislation must be written to invite rather than discourage forest biomass as a renewable energy source.  Otherwise it will continue or increase the use of fossil fuels in many parts of the country, and that is not progress toward sound, clean energy policy.”

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economic-impact-report.

“Dan and Gretchen’s four decades of combined experience in their respective fields greatly strengthens NAFO’s advocacy presence,” said Dave Tenny, NAFO President & CEO.

“Dan’s diverse experience and strong relationships in Congress, the Executive Branch and the non-profit sector will help us enhance support for private working forests and add momentum to efforts that already have established an impressive track record of success in just four years,” Tenny said.

“Gretchen will lead our strategic communications program to further build the NAFO brand and help us more effectively reach our key audiences using a variety of modern and sophisticated communications tools and approaches,” Tenny said.

Sakura was formerly with The Conservation Fund (TCF), where he served as Vice President for Government Relations and Director of Real Estate, responsible for TCF’s nationwide real estate program and government relations team to secure federal funding and advance authorizing legislation to conserve fish and wildlife habitat, historic sites, working landscapes and high-value recreational areas.

Prior to this role, he served as legislative director to Senator Cantwell (D-WA) and as Chief of Staff to George T. Frampton, Jr., Chairman of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. Sakura also served in the U.S. Department of the Interior with a focus on National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges. He received a bachelor of arts from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Schaefer formerly served as Vice President of Communications for the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA), where she developed a modern communications program based on a strategic mix of traditional and digital communications to strengthen CSPA’s brand and advocacy effectiveness. Prior to her service at CSPA, Gretchen was Communications Director at the American Tort Reform Association, supporting successful passage of federal and state legislation. She was also Public Affairs Director at the American Insurance Association where she specialized in federal and state regulatory and legislative issues including management of the implications to the industry following the September 11 terrorist attacks. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marquette University.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses nearly 80 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economic-impact-report.

“Last week President Obama reiterated his ‘all of the above’ energy strategy that encourages the expansion of renewable energy sources, like biomass. The most effective way to implement the President’s strategy is to develop a policy that is consistent with how biomass production and use really works both on the ground and in the marketplace.  A critical task of the Panel is to develop science-based recommendations that reflect the real world to promote biomass as a viable alternative to fossil fuels,” said Dave Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO, who is speaking before the Panel this afternoon.

“As the Panel members look at alternatives, they should ask at every point along the way if their recommendations can actually be implemented within the modern forestry sector and fully disclose that to the EPA,” Tenny said. “Some of the concepts the Panel is considering involve extremely complex baselines and calculations that are speculative and very difficult and costly to apply.  Others impose narrow limitations on timeframes and geographic areas within which carbon is measured.  Such approaches can significantly distort what the atmosphere actually sees over time when wood is used for energy and may frustrate rather than inform sound policy.”

“Fortunately, the prevailing science supports a simple and straightforward approach to accounting for biomass carbon emissions that is practical to implement,” Tenny concluded.

NAFO filed detailed comments ahead of the Panel’s March 20 public meeting. NAFO’s comments urge the Panel to apply a national scale for accounting, a 100 year timeframe for measuring the climate impacts of bioenergy, and a baseline using well-established existing data.  These comments add further detail to recommendations filed by NAFO on January 25, which identify ways to reduce the complexity of the accounting framework EPA originally presented to the Panel.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses nearly 80 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economic-impact-report.

WASHINGTON – Today the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) urged the EPA’s Biogenic Carbon Emissions Panel, convened to review the carbon benefits of using wood and other biomass for energy, to seek science- based approaches to accounting for biomass carbon emissions that are consistent with real-world forest practices in the U.S.  NAFO’s recommendations respond to the Panel’s draft recommendations on EPA’s Accounting Framework for Biogenic CO₂ Emissions from Stationary Sources.

“Our best advice to the science panel is to be practical and stay on course,” said Dave Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO.  “It is critical for the panel to consider how science intersects with real-life forest management and make recommendations founded on actual rather than theoretical practices.  In the end the panel’s recommendations must support a pragmatic policy that promotes rather than discourages biomass as a renewable, carbon beneficial alternative to fossil fuels.”

NAFO’s recommendations point out that, although appropriately critical of the arbitrary scale and complexity of EPA’s proposed accounting framework, the work of the panel in several instances veers off course by exploring questions that are outside the scope of its mandate or that are unnecessarily complex given the established practices of the industry.

“Although well intentioned, some of the panel’s recommendations are unreasonably complex and would be unworkable if implemented in a regulatory context,” Tenny continued. “Understanding carbon changes in small forest stands, the slight differences between various types of forest biomass or the means to track biomass to its source may have theoretical value in certain contexts, but is ill-suited for a policy applied in a pragmatic way across a broad sector of the national economy and across forest landscapes.”

“The better approach is to take a step back, look at the forest carbon cycle at an appropriately broad scale, and identify approaches that reflect carbon changes across forest landscapes over long periods of time.  If approached in this way, the inevitable conclusion is that biomass emissions do not increase net carbon in the atmosphere, unlike one-way carbon transmissions from fossil fuels, and should therefore not be regulated like fossil fuels.“

Read NAFO’s comments on the draft recommendations and statement to the science review panel, as well as and a new primer from Dovetail Partners on forest carbon.

The Biogenic Carbon Emissions Panel was established by the EPA to conduct a science and technical review of carbon emissions from biogenic energy sources.  The Panel held its first meeting to accept public comments today, and will conduct a series of additional public meetings over the next several months to develop its report.  The Panel’s final report will be transmitted to the EPA Administrator following review by the full Science Advisory Board.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states.  Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs.  To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economic-impact-report.

Even though Congress is unlikely to adopt “cap and trade” or other approaches to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for the foreseeable future, the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to curtail emissions through new regulation, and the result could be substantial for communities, the environment and the economy.  So what is the fuss all about?  What exactly is the carbon cycle?  What is meant by such terms as “carbon dioxide equivalence”, “carbon neutrality”, “fossil carbon,” and “substitution effect”?  And, to what are people referring when using the term “carbon debt”?  This report starts from square one of the carbon cycle to explain this and other aspects of the carbon debate and what it all means. (Introduction by Author Jim Bowyer)

The implications of the carbon cycle in policy setting are major for forest owners.  To read the full Dovetail report, click here. To learn more about carbon and biomass, see NAFO’s Biomass Energy Advocacy Toolkit.

New federal legislation will help timberland owners avoid costly permit fees for logging roads, U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Kurt Schrader announced Monday.

Under the new provision, a 35-year-old U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy would be extended for another year. It would shield timber companies from the cost of designing stormwater control systems for logging roads under the federal Clean Water Act. Landowners will not be required to get federal permits to build logging roads.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had ruled that forest land owners must pay for the permits, and timber industry officials are watching to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case.

Herrera Beutler and Schrader estimate the appellate court’s decision would force Pacific Northwest timberland owners to pay $883 million annually for new permits.

Herrera Beutler, a Southwest Washington Republican, and Schrader, an Oregon Democrat, are the primary sponsors. President Barack Obama signed the measure into law as part of the 2012 federal budget.

Steve Stinson, managing of the Cowlitz Ridge Tree Farm in Toledo, said the permit fees would lead to job losses in one of the region’s biggest industries.

“This development is a step in the right direction and should open the door for a process leading to permanent resolution,” Stinson said.

“Our family forest business produces green, family wage jobs in our rural economy that must already comply with the most stringent forest practices rules in the nation. This legislation will prevent a costly and redundant regulatory burden,” Stinson said in a written statement.

 
Article available at The Daily News.

December 17, 2011                                                    202-777-3708

Forest Owners Thank Congress for Supporting EPA’s Longstanding Interpretation of the Clean Water Act

Temporary provision in omnibus appropriations bill will continue forestry’s non-point source status under the CWA

WASHINGTON— David P. Tenny, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) released the following statement today in response to congressional action on the Conference Report for H.R. 2055, the Omnibus Appropriations bill, which maintains EPA’s longstanding treatment of forest roads as non-point sources under the Clean Water Act:

“We thank Congress for taking action to prevent the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ misinterpretation of the Clean Water Act from taking effect.  The 79 bipartisan House and Senate sponsors and cosponsors of the Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act have joined forest owners in strong support of EPA’s historical treatment of forestry and forest roads as non-point sources.  Because of their help, the provision in the multi-bill funding measure moves us an important step closer to a permanent repudiation of the Ninth Circuit’s overreach.  Today’s outcome is good for our forests, for clean water and for well-paying rural jobs throughout the country.

“This legislation also supports the Supreme Court’s decision to seek the federal government’s views on whether to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision.  Today’s legislation sends a strong signal that Congress will support the administration in defending EPA’s regulations in court.  We remain hopeful that the Supreme Court will ultimately reverse the Ninth Circuit and restore the regulations that have been a Clean Water Act success story for more than 35 years.”

In May of 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a final ruling in NEDC v. Brown overturning EPA’s 1976 regulation that treats forestry activities as nonpoint sources under the Clean Water Act.  The Court also declared for the first time that forest roads used for timber harvest require industrial permits typically obtained by wastewater treatment facilities, factories and other confined industrial sites.  The Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act (H.R. 2541 and S. 1369), would amend the Clean Water Act to preserve EPA’s existing regulations and maintain the non-point source status of forest roads and forestry activities.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states.  Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs.  To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economic-impact-report.

The court made this determination despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has insisted for 35 years that requiring “point-source” permits is unnecessary to protect the environment and is even harmful. In deciding as they did, the judges overturned a long-standing rule that, within reason, the federal judiciary must defer to federal agencies in interpreting laws they enforce…

Full article available at washingtontimes.com

Full article available at WSJ.com

WASHINGTON— David P. Tenny, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO), released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order asking the Solicitor General for the views of the federal government on two petitions challenging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that forest roads are “point sources” requiring an industrial discharge permit under the Clean Water Act (CWA):

“We applaud the Supreme Court for scrutinizing the Ninth Circuit’s decision to disregard EPA’s 35 years of success regulating forest management as a nonpoint source under Clean Water Act.  The Court is hearing not only the voice of forest owners and managers across the country but also Attorneys General from 26 states who joined a brief supporting EPA’s historic approach.  The policy and legal importance of this case is clear.

“For nearly four decades, the EPA has cooperated with the states under established Clean Water Act authority to build a network of Best Management Practices providing flexible and effective water quality protection during forestry operations.  This has been a Clean Water Act success story.  The Ninth Circuit’s decision threatens to upend this progress by replacing an efficient and flexible system that promotes clean water with a costly and inflexible permit requirement that invites additional litigation.  In the end the Ninth Circuit’s decision hurts forest owners and forests alike.

“While this is a significant first step, there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will hear the case and reverse the Ninth Circuit Court’s overstep.  It does, however, provide the Administration and the Solicitor General an opportunity to submit to the Supreme Court a clear and unambiguous defense of EPA’s longstanding and legally appropriate approach to regulating forest roads as nonpoint sources.”

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states.  Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs.  To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economic-impact-report.