Calls for increased use of renewable forest biomass
WASHINGTON, DC (April 1, 2009) – The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) submitted testimony in favor of expanding the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) today in Congress. NAFO asked a key Senate Committee to recognize biomass from private, working forests as an eligible feedstock on an even playing field with other renewable energy sources.
“The RFS definition disqualifies most of our nation’s private forests, which provide the most abundant renewable and sustainably managed source of energy in the country,” said David P. Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO. “It also ignores the benefits these forests provide to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every BTU of fuel produced by forest biomass reduces carbon emissions by over ninety percent compared to gasoline.”
The United Nations’ 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights forest management as a primary tool to reduce GHG emissions. Specifically, the IPCC said, “In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fiber or energy from the forest, will generate the greatest mitigation benefit.”
In its testimony for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Oversight, NAFO urged Congress to adopt the definition in the 2008 Farm Bill for renewable forest biomass in place of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) definition, pointing out that there are at least four different definitions of qualifying forest biomass in federal statute. This adds complexity and confusion to project developers, biomass producers and federal programs administrators. The EISA definition, which EPA is now developing rules and regulations for, significantly limits contributions to the RFS on approximately ninety percent of non-federal forests.
NAFO stressed that the EISA definition discourages healthy, sustainable forest practices, requires very complex rules for tracking biomass that discourage facility development and creates regional disparities by disadvantaging renewable forest biofuels.
NAFO reminded Congress that, “forest owners already work within a well established framework of laws, regulations and non-regulatory programs and actions that promote and maintain responsible forest management, and will continue to do so as they help our nation meet its renewable energy objectives.”
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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to promoting federal policies that protect the economic and environmental values of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 74 million acres of private forestland in 47 states.
Tags: biomass
