myVote Matters: My Federal Issues 

Federal Affairs Updates Biomass & Clean Energy Clean Water Act & Forestry  Green Building Timber Tax Policy

Through Weyerhaeuser’s federal advocacy efforts, we seek federal policy that acknowledges the value of forest products in creating jobs and providing sustainable solutions to our customers and the world.  We work with Congress, the administration and our associations on these important issues. Recent updates about our progress on these issues can be found here. For 2011, company’s top policy issues include:

Biomass and Clean Energy

• Biomass Feedstocks are Carbon Neutral. We support recent EPA action to reconsider its treatment of biomass in their PSD Tailoring Rule that regulates greenhouse gas emissions.
• Broad Definition of Forest Biomass. We support legislative that broadly recognizes forest biomass feedstocks as renewable, clean sources for energy and fuel production.

Clean Water Act (CWA) and Forestry

• Protecting Forests from Overregulation under the CWA. Since the 1970s, EPA regulations have interpreted the CWA to definite forest management activities as “nonpoint sources” that do not require federal permits. With recent federal court decisions and EPA activity eroding this balance, Weyerhaeuser is seeking legislation to restore our historical treatment.

Green Building

• Promoting use of American Wood Products. We are working with Congress and federal agencies to promote their use of green building standards that do not discriminate against American wood products.

Timber Tax Policy

• Maintaining the long-standing laws for taxation of timber income, which reflect the unique business of growing trees.
• Modernizing Timber REIT Tax Law. We support the U.S. REIT Act, which updates REIT tax law and includes provisions that provide Timber REITs with more flexibility to operate within the REIT structure.

There are a number of other issues that Weyerhaeuser works with our associations and other coalitions to advance. This includes:

• Boiler MACT: EPA recently issued final rules that require companies with industrial boilers to apply maximum achievable control technology (MACT) for their boiler emissions. Later, EPA recognized there is room for improvement in the final rules and has begun a process to revise those rules. We are working with our industry coalitions, EPA and Congress to improve the rules to address remaining concerns. This includes supporting legislation that provides EPA more time to revise these rules.
• Housing Market. Federal policy must continue to build stability and consumer confidence in the housing market through policies that keep people in their homes, stabilize home prices and encourage home buyers to re-enter the market.
• Northern Spotted Owl Draft Recovery Plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is about to abandon its 17-year federal lands strategy and impose new recovery obligations on state and private landowners. As these major changes based an unproven theory that more habitat is needed, we are working with our regional forestry associations  to reverse the direction of this draft plan.
• Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). In the Pacific Northwest, much of Weyerhaeuser’s energy needs are sourced from BPA, where we represent about 4% of the federal agency’s load. We are continually working with BPA and our local utilities to maintain reasonable energy rates and protect our manufacturing jobs.
• Truck Weights. We often send trucks on routes without filling them to capacity due to needlessly restrictive weight limits. This increases the number of trucks on the road, which in turn increases the fuel consumed and creates more congestion. Working with a broad coalition , we support increasing the federal interstate national truck weight maximum from 80,000 points to 97,000 pounds with a sixth axle.