A long-brewing battle over converting wood to energy is resurfacing in Congress as a five-year farm bill gains momentum.
Forest owners are pushing lawmakers to make leftover material from logging projects and lumber milling a bigger part of the federal renewable fuel standard, which encourages alternatives to petroleum to power vehicles and airplanes.
But the effort — led by the Forest Landowners Association, the National Alliance of Forest Owners, some farm groups and their allies in Congress — faces opposition from pulp and paper companies that use similar materials from the forest. A measure to advance the RFS idea stumbled in the House last week when lawmakers rejected a related amendment to the farm bill from Rep. Cliff Bentz, an Oregon Republican.
“The RFS holds the solution to multiple problems,” said Scott Jones, CEO of the Forest Landowners Association, representing individual owners and forest businesses in the Southeast and other areas.
