Center for Forestry & Center for Fire Research and Outreach at University of California, Berkeley are part of the initiative that supported the inclusion of forest biomass issues in the proposed FY2017 Interior Appropriations bill.
The scientists working on forest biomass issues all over the US were delighted to learn about the legislation's efforts to incorporate more data driven science into the legislative process. The letter shown below provides scientific commentary on the legislative language on forest biomass.
"Even where a forest bioenergy system is predicted to result in near-term increases in CO2 emissions compared to fossil fuels, as long as it results in lower emissions in the long term, the effect on peak global temperature is beneficial. Put differently, policies that focus only on near-term emissions without considering longer term impacts may result in higher peak global temperatures. Understanding the relationship between long-term cumulative CO2 emissions and peak global temperatures is critical to correctly assessing forest bioenergy systems."
William Stewart, PhD Forestry Specialist, Co-Director of the Center for Forestry & Center for Fire Research and Outreach, and other eight other scientists came together to write this commentary:
