Udall, Risch introduce “National Forest Insect and Disease Emergency Act” with biomass fast-tracking provisions

In Washington, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado and Senator James Risch of Idaho introduced the National Forest Insect and Disease Emergency Act to provide tax incentives to companies that harvest trees that were killed by beetle infestations.

Commenting on the bill in a conference call, Udall said, “it pays people to use biofuels in productive ways, which is already allowed in the Farm Act, and then those biofuels can be credited under the Clean Air Act, interestingly enough. The biofuel credit is not being used to the extent it could be right now. That would be an important development for the Forest Service as they encourage potential harvesters who would want to turn that biomass into biofuel.”

Udall said his bill is less about dollars as providing forestry managers with better options for dealing with pine beetle infestation. Included in the bill are “insect emergency area” designations that would permit the Forest Service to fast-track targeted areas for harvesting to reduce fire risk and further infestation.

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