BILL REQ. #:  H-0287.4 

Read first time 01/13/11.   Referred to Committee on Environment.

     TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY:
     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
     WHEREAS, Biomass energy holds great potential for new markets in the forest products and energy sectors by creating demand and value for material derived from activities related to forest health and hazardous fuels reduction; and
     WHEREAS, More than twenty-one million acres of Western forests have been killed by pine bark beetle, posing a safety threat to communities, the environment, local and regional economies, and the health of our forests; and
     WHEREAS, Biomass utilization represents one of the most viable new means available to address this ecological crisis, while decreasing fossil fuel usage and stabilizing a depressed lumber and forest-product market; and
     WHEREAS, When American Forest and Paper Association members use biomass to generate energy to run their mills, they prevent the use of the equivalent of more than 200 million barrels of oil annually; and
     WHEREAS, Since 2006, the forest and paper industry has lost more than 190,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce; and
     WHEREAS, The forest products industry in Washington State accounted for over 11 percent, or over 41,000 jobs in 2008, of all in-state manufacturing jobs, which is especially significant in the rural, timber dependent communities where family wage jobs are difficult to come by; and
     WHEREAS, Emissions from the combustion of biomass are not included in the department of energy's voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reporting programs, the environmental protection agency's greenhouse gas emissions reporting programs, the environmental protection agency's greenhouse gas reporting rule, or calculations of international bodies including the intergovernmental panel on climate change and the European Union; and
     WHEREAS, The environmental protection agency's decision to include biomass combustion emissions under its Title V greenhouse gas tailoring rule contradicts federal precedent regarding the carbon neutrality of biomass combustion and will discourage the responsible development and utilization of renewable biomass;     
     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the administrator of the environmental protection agency exclude biomass combustion emissions in calculating greenhouse gas emissions and remove all rules relating to biomass combustion.
     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.