Hardwood Floors April/May 2017

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

DID YOU KNOW? The energy portion of the Farm Bill has a number of positive programs for forest-based biomass.

Time Flies…Farm Bill Up Again for Reauthorization (Continued)

BigStockPhoto ©

pellet producers that serve domestic markets — the same pellet producers that depend on our sawdust to make their product. Programs that can help this sector have the potential to revitalize demand for our sawdust and alleviate at least some of our accumulating residuals concerns. And there are potentially other areas in the Farm Bill that could benefit hardwood manufacturing facilities. We have been working with our colleagues in the softwood sector in advancing the Timber Innovation Act, which would establish a new performance driven research and development program to advance tall wood building construction in the United States. The Farm Bill is the expected vehicle to make that bill a reality. The good news is that we are very early in the process and have some time to think and strategize about other policy provisions that we could advocate for in this next Farm Bill that benefit our hardwood facilities directly or indirectly through our value chain. We look forward to working with hardwood companies from all sectors, including the flooring sector, on additional ideas for the Farm Bill. Please feel free to share. Dana Cole is Executive Director at the Hardwood Federation, a Washington D.C.-based hardwood industry trade association that represents thousands of hardwood businesses in every state in the U.S. and acts as the industry’s advocacy voice on Capitol Hill. She can be reached at dana.cole@hardwoodfederation.com.

oil or propane to heat their homes and businesses. The bottom line is that qualifying as an “advanced biofuel” allows solid biomass fuel producers to receive direct payments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). There is another program called REAP — Rural Energy for America Program— that also provides funding for installation of wood heating systems in rural communities. These systems run on pellets or chips and typically are installed in rural hospitals, schools and, in some cases, heat entire towns. A third program, known as the Community Wood Energy Program, or CWEP, seeks to accelerate deployment of highly efficient wood heating equipment. CWEP is a competitive grant program that assists local governments with the capital costs of installing high-efficiency, biomass-fueled heating systems. CWEP provides states, counties, and municipalities with matching grants through the USDA to offset the costs of installing heating systems that utilize locally available biomass resources, such as wood chips, wood pellets, or other biomass energy feedstocks. These programs are worth highlighting in part because they might be helpful in addressing mill residuals issues that are surfacing for our members in certain regions of the country. Last year’s warm winter and relatively low fossil fuel prices have been tough on

20 hardwood floors www.hardwoodfloorsmag.com