Resources Agency Secretary Calls for Increased Biomass Use
In early May, the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot, called on the heads of eight other state agencies to increase inter-agency collaboration on biomass utilization. Secretary Crowfoot sent a letter to the heads of the CPUC, CEC, Air Board, CalFire, Department of Conservation, Governor’s Office of Business Development and other agencies. The letter underscores the urgency of forest thinning, a proven way to reduce wildfire risks and impacts, and the need to put that forest waste and other vegetation to use.
Secretary Crowfoot’s letter highlights several key points:
- biomass utilization is a key strategy to reduce catastrophic wildfire risks;
- Reducing unsafe and unhealthy density of vegetation in our forests is essential to reduce dangerous wildfire threats, restore ecological and watershed health, and build healthy and resilient communities;
- While California has successfully increased vegetation removal, too much of still sits in the forest – which only increases fire risks – or is piled and burned, which increases air and climate pollution;
- Converting forest waste to electricity is the primary method to remove and process low value biomass; and
- Bioenergy facilities are critical to remove and process fuel loads across numerous high fire severity zones and bridge our needs as we grow the low carbon bioeconomy for wood waste.