Energy and Democrats prove a poor mix

A provision included in the Democratic leadership's secretly-written anti-energy bill will stop all biomass and timber activities on Federal lands--a move that could increase catastrophic wildfires in the Western states dramatically and exacerbate the entire nation's dependency on foreign energy, according to Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska), the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee. He indicates that the legislation "will advance the ... efforts to further increase Federal control over rural Western communities.

"Unfortunately, I'm not surprised to see that the Democratic leadership has chosen to pander to the extremist elements of their environmental political base," Young asserts. "The biomass provision--like most provisions of the bill--is nothing more than an appeasement for the extreme environmental community at the expense of rural America.

"I can't stress strongly enough that Congress should not be mandating use of biofuels when markets decide best when and where they can be used. One of the natural places where market forces will work is in public lands, states where there is a tremendous supply of fuel in the overgrown, unhealthy forests.

"The ... bill will fund the Secure Rural Schools and Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) programs, but it will drive a stake through the hearts of the American timber and biomass energy industries," Young charges. "The ... bill will completely gut the bipartisan Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) when our nation's forests are most in need...."

Concludes Rep. Stevan Pearce (R.-N.M.), the ranking member on the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee. "The Democrats say they want to require biomass in their renewable fuels standard, but their so-called energy bill prohibits biofuels from the largest source--Federal lands with unhealthy and overgrown forests. This is especially cruel because many Western communities are attempting to recover from the loss of timber jobs--created by the Democrats' anti-timber policies--by opening biomass facilities."

"This attempt to roll back the bipartisan Healthy Forests Restoration Act will endanger the lives and property of those who live throughout rural Western America;' argues Rep. Rob Bishop (R.-Utah), the ranking member on the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee.

"Instead of helping to accelerate the efforts of our land management agencies to properly manage our forests to prevent wildfires, this legislation will ensure that our nation's forests remain the tinder box they currently are--and to make matters worse, this ... bill prevents the use of biomass from trees grown on forests that use natural regeneration, which many private foresters rely on in New England and the Great Lakes states."

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning