A bill held hostage?
Like most of the conservation community, we rallied our members to call in to their representatives in support on the most significant environmental bill in history, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (that's #ACES on the twitter circuit), and so many of you answered the call for this huge leap forward. Thank you! Be sure to let your reps know that you appreciate their votes and ask them to keep the bill strong as it comes back from the Senate! Unfortunately, though, one of Washington's Representatives decided use this groundbreaking legislation to grant favors to the timber industry. An open letter from ED Mitch Friedman asks some important questions.
Yes, we can! Big thanks to all of you who took action to support the groundbreaking climate change bill! You are all "ACES"!
Like most of the conservation community, we rallied our members to call in to their representatives in support on the most significant environmental bill in history, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (that's #ACES on the twitter circuit), and so many of you answered the call for this huge leap forward. Thank you! Be sure to let your reps know that you appreciate their votes and ask them to keep the bill strong as it comes back from the Senate!
Unfortunately, though, one of Washington's Representatives decided to use this groundbreaking legislation to grant favors to the timber industry. An open letter from ED Mitch Friedman explains.
Editor,
I’m disappointed in Representative Brian Baird for using the climate change bill to grant favors to the timber industry at the expense of our nation’s public forests and our planet’s atmosphere.
Baird touts about how he, by threatening to oppose the most important environmental bill in history, forced changes for biomass production. But it already included sensible biomass provisions. Baird added a subsidy to log late successional forests (80-200 years old) in the case of fire and disease.
Top scientists say such salvage logging harms the forest. Since wildfire only releases 5-15% of the carbon stored in a forest, and logging releases more, the climate will also suffer. The fossil fuel required (burned in chainsaws and trucks) to obtain the biomass often outweighs the power generated by it.
The only beneficiaries of Baird’s effort might be timber companies on the dry eastside of our region. Unless the policy goes haywire, Baird’s own district and constituents won’t feel any effect.
We should ask Baird why he held hostage a key bill for this agenda, and why he hasn’t helped conservationists and timber folks collaborating in his own district, like the Pinchot Partners, to improve forest management and produce wood and jobs.
Sincerely,
Mitch Friedman
Maybe you want to ask Baird the very same questions? An LTE like this one to your local paper would be great!
Please let these Reps (or your own) know you appreciate their response to your or our members' calls:
McDermott: email 202-225-3106
Reichert: email 202-225-7761
Larsen: email 202-225-2605
