Investing in Forests
Renewable and carbon-neutral biomass energy creates jobs, combats climate change, and keeps forests as forests. Viable biomass energy markets support America’s private forests, which employ 2.5 million Americans—especially in rural parts of the country—and contribute $115 billion to the economy each year. Viable biomass energy markets also allow foresters to maintain the health and sustainability of forests—and importantly, keep forests as forests, allowing them to sequester greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through the natural carbon cycle. Furthermore, a robust biomass energy industry provides a domestic source of clean, renewable energy that can help us combat climate change and gain our energy independence. In the
Resources section of this website, you can find information on the economic, energy, and environmental benefits of biomass energy and viable biomass energy markets.
Last summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to treat biomass emissions the same as fossil fuel emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule. This rule would have reversed well-established policy, including the EPA’s own policy, recognizing that forest biomass recycles carbon from the atmosphere through tree growth and is an important means of reducing carbon in the atmosphere. The Tailoring Rule’s treatment of biomass would have had numerous unintended consequences on the economy as well as the renewable energy and climate change goals. After much criticism, the EPA decided to defer the treatment of biomass under the Tailoring Rule for three years, pending further consideration of the science and a subsequent rulemaking on the issue. It is important that supporters for renewable biomass energy stay engaged in the process to document the ecological benefits of renewable biomass energy.
Please examine our resources on biomass and take action to support U.S. jobs, U.S. forests, and domestic, renewable, clean energy. It’s important that we work together to grow America’s energy and forests.
read more
Follow NAFO on Twitter at @nafoalliance or tweet your support with one of the below messages:
Sign up to receive NAFO news releases and other valuable updates about America’s forests and the development of biomass energy. Click here to sign up.