It’s time to invest our tax dollars in truly environmental solutions to climate change, not false solutions like burning our forests.
We all know by now, except for the far fringe deniers, that we are in a climate crisis. Ice caps are melting, temperatures are dramatically fluctuating, sea levels are rising, and we have a small window of opportunity to take action. Unfortunately, when a crisis is at hand, there is always a small group of people hoping to make a buck off of it. For forests, we are most concerned with the risks associated with the push to burn trees for electricity or to convert them into liquid fuel as a “solution” to climate change.
Forests as a critical global carbon sink should be preserved and restored not chopped down to address the climate crisis, but in the headlong rush to find an answer, big companies and small entrepreneurs are pushing forest burning as a solution. Though science is on our side, forests are still viewed by powerful industrial interests as a “renewable” resource, we all have a strong desire to end our reliance on foreign oil and end destructive mountaintop removal coal mining domestically. Taken together, there is a loud battle cry for burning forests echoing in the halls of Congress.
Intact Southern forests are a critical component in the quest to fight the climate crisis. Rather than investing in preserving and restoring our forests, the Federal Government is investing millions of taxpayer dollars in false solutions. Most egregious is the give away to companies building biomass facilities that will burn trees to produce energy. Our forests need to be protected not burned as their solutions means more clear-cutting, more climate emissions and an unproven solution.
Federal legislators are currently considering numerous bills giving generous tax credits to the biomass industry. Congress will be voting on some of these bills very soon. Please take the time to contact your Congress members now to ask for a NO vote on new or extended tax credits for burning biomass to make electricity. You can take action here.
We are calling Congress and the Obama administration to end these taxpayer giveaways for false solutions and invest in proven methods such as conservation and efficiency, wind, and solar power. Please join us in taking action today!
