Here is a digest of recent news stories that affect forestry in California:
Lumber Boom Boosts Home Depot, Timber Towns, By ALAN FARNHAM, ABC News, Feb. 28, 2013. Good News For Oregon, Wyoming, Alabama, Other Timber States
Timber! An improved U.S. housing market plus rising foreign demand for wood are boosting lumber prices, to the benefit of mill owners, retailers like Home Depot, and timber towns like Eugene, Ore.
Home Depot's announcement this week that its quarterly profit had jumped 32 percent--more than had been forecast—helped lift the Dow Jones industrial average. The company's shares climbed nearly 6 percent--their best percentage gain in four years......
West coast lumber exports to China nearly doubled in fourth quarter of 2012, Forest Business Network, Feb 23, 2013
Lumber exports to China from Washington, Oregon, northern California, and Alaska rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2012, jumping to 89.4 million board feet, an increase of 97.2 percent compared to the third quarter of the year, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. At the same time, total lumber exports to all countries from the West coast increased about 21 percent, from 185.6 million board feet in the third quarter of 2012 to 224.2 million board feet....
Cellulosic producers fume at 'phantom fuel' label as EPA cancels production target, Greenwire, Feb. 28, 2013
Second-generation biofuel producers are pushing back against the moniker "phantom fuels," a term that opponents of the renewable fuel standard (RFS) have tagged them with, even as U.S. EPA cancels its cellulosic biofuel requirements. Major ethanol companies Poet LLC and Abengoa Bioenergy, along with the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), yesterday took to Capitol Hill to tout the progress they have made on producing biofuels from plant-based materials like switch grass, agricultural residues and municipal solid waste......
Cities, rural areas, transportation join the scrum for cap-and-trade cash, Debra Kahn, ClimateWire, Tuesday, February 26, 2013, (paid subscription required)
As money pours into California's coffers from the auction of greenhouse gas allowances, green groups and government agencies are putting in their bids for a share of the state's cap-and-trade largesse. Potentially billions of dollars could be up for grabs as the quarterly auctions continue through 2020. Thus far, the program has raised about $140 million for the state via two auctions, the most recent one last week (ClimateWire, Feb. 25). .....
Subpanel to explore discrepancy in state-federal logging levels, E&E Daily, February 25, 2013, (paid subscription required)
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulations tomorrow will explore logging levels in state and federal forests, kicking off what are likely to be many discussions in the 113th Congress on how rural communities can extract more forest revenue.....
Global warming worries California voters, poll finds, By Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, Feb. 25, 2013
A new survey shows most California voters don't like government's response to global warming and still support the state's greenhouse gas emissions law. The Field Poll results released today show that 62 percent of voters are unhappy with the federal government's actions and nearly half, 49 percent, give low marks to what the state is doing.....
Justices decline to hear 3 enviro, energy case, Greenwire, February 25, 2013
The Supreme Court today declined to hear a case challenging U.S. Forest Service rules restricting the use of motor vehicles in Eldorado National Forest. In Public Lands for the People v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, miners and prospectors hoped the court would overturn a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last September that upheld the Forest Service's 2008 rules. The regulations limited motor vehicle use in the eastern California forest and prohibited wheeled vehicle cross-country travel. Specifically, the regulations require vehicle users to obtain permission though a notice of intent or plan of operations.......
Climate law curtails students, UC spending $8 million to comply with AB32, Orange County Register Editorial, Feb 25, 2013
Not even in government, which can spend money it doesn't have, can the same dollar be spent twice. The University of California system confronts this unpleasant reality as it faces the onerous costs of complying with Assembly Bill 32, the state's Global Warming Solutions Act, ostensibly intended to combat climate change. At a recent hearing before the state Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, a UC official testified that it will cost the university system $8 million in the coming fiscal year to comply with AB32's rigid rules......
Delayed vote causes California, Quebec carbon market concerns, PointCarbon.com, Feb. 25, 2013, (subscription required)
A California state senate committee has delayed the confirmation vote on an appointee to the California Air Resources Board (ARB) until next month, causing concerns that plans to link the state CO2 market with Quebec might be delayed. Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg on Wednesday said that while Governor Jerry Brown’s pick for the board, Alexander Sherriffs, is qualified for the position, he wanted to put the vote on hold until he can have a dialogue with the administration over its plan to expand California’s emissions market beyond its borders.....
California's second carbon auction gets higher price, By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee, FEB. 23, 2013
California's fledgling cap-and-trade carbon market is becoming more familiar to the companies that have to participate in it – and that's showing up in the price they're paying for the right to pollute. Carbon emission allowances sold for $13.62 a ton this week during the state's second-ever carbon auction, the California Air Resources Board reported Friday. The price at Tuesday's auction was considerably higher than the first state-run sale last November, when carbon sold for barely above the $10 legal minimum......
Rural fire fee faces new challenge, Lawmakers considering broad-based insurance tax as alternative, By Michael Gardner, San Diego Union Tribune, Feb. 23, 2013
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers this year will once again square-off over how to pay for fighting wildfires and preventing outbreaks in the first place. The Legislature will begin to take up a number of measures aimed at repealing or at least narrowing a $150 annual fire prevention fee just as the state starts sending out the second round of bills to property owners later in March. The fee covers rural regions that are defended by Cal Fire, affecting about 750,000 properties statewide and 73,000 in San Diego County......
CEQA serves the state well, but it needs adjustments, Fresno Bee Editorial, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013
Forty-two years after its enactment, the California Environmental Quality Act needs an update to prevent it from being used as a sledge-hammer against progress by special interests. You might notice that we didn't use the word "reform" to describe potential CEQA adjustments. This is because the Act has served the citizens of California well. It has brought more transparency to the development process, given people a louder voice in the look and feel of their communities and, most of all, protected our state's air, water, wildlife and public health......
Wyden pledges renewed timber county payments, Secure Rural Schools, first enacted in 2000, has expired, Herald & News, Feb 22, 2013
GRANTS PASS (AP) — Sen. Ron Wyden is pledging to renew and expand the federal subsidies to timber counties known as Secure Rural Schools. The Oregon Democrat says that for the next year or two, he wants to renew the payments that brought $105 million to Oregon in 2012 as part of $346 million that went to 729 counties nationwide. As a permanent solution, he wants to go beyond timber country and extend similar payments to rural counties with federal lands and waters being tapped for mining and energy......