Engaging in proactive federal advocacy can bring with it elements of reading tea leaves. The cyclical nature of beltway policymaking requires trade associations to consider congressional calendars and election cycles and how they both impact the timing of federal advocacy with the best chance of bearing fruit. Vast legions of professionals stand ready to help organizations like the Pellet Fuels Institute, divine from these cycles of the best times to be in Washington D.C., walking the halls of Senate and House office buildings, engaging in the timeless dance that is sometimes called lobbying.Gauging the effectiveness of any specific lobbying effort can test the limits of even the most seasoned and experienced professional. The seeds of cynicism find fertile ground amongst those engaged in federal advocacy, and for good reason. A coalition of wood heat interests worked for over a decade toward tax credit parity for wood and wood pellet appliances before seeing portions of the Biomass Thermal Utilization signed into law. The ultimate goal of securing tax credits for qualifying appliances for not only residences but also business installations remains unfulfilled to this day. This industry, like most others, makes policy progress in fits and starts. Trade organizations weighing the value of their advocacy efforts by the metric of the passage of a specific bill will ultimately be left wanting. Instead, trade associations would be wise to view each policy objective as an opportunity to once again tell the story of their industry, why it is relevant in today’s economy and why it is worth a policy boost or protection from misguided overregulation.Consider the policy environment the Pellet Fuels Institute finds itself in today. A sharply divided Congress is struggling to simply keep the federal government open for business, punting on critical pieces of legislation like the Farm Bill and choosing instead a one-year extension, presumably to buy some time. The Pellet Fuels Institute cites several programs embedded in the Farm Bill as legislative priorities, including the Advanced Biofuels Payment Program, Community Wood Energy Grants and Wood Innovations Grants. Each of these has been utilized by our sector and warrants our continued advocacy. The Farm Bill is also home to a declaration of biomass carbon neutrality that will only grow in importance as energy policy is crafted to drive down the carbon intensity of everything from transportation fuels to heating spaces. If Congress has selected a date to debate the thousands of items within the Farm Bill, including the small handful of provisions of interest to wood pellet manufacturers, they haven’t shared it with the Pellet Fuels Institute. It would be easy to point to this murkiness and swear off federal advocacy completely, but this fatalistic approach fails to recognize the real value of education. How can any industry expect federal policymakers to consider the impact of policies and regulation on a sector if they themselves haven’t articulated it succinctly, over and over?Lawmakers don’t understand wood pellet manufacturing. Most don’t even have a basic understanding of wood product manufacturing, despite the enormous economic contributions the sector makes to many of their states. Their notion of how any sector functions is shaped by those professionals willing to spend the time required to educate them. Recognizing this simple reality and turning it into a mandate is as good as any specific legislative priority the Pellet Fuels Institute might identify for 2024. Congress needs someone to tell it about wood pellet manufacturing and why it is a vital cog in the wheel of sustainable forest products manufacturing in the United States. The Pellet Fuels Institute is that someone. Who else can be expected to clearly articulate the economic contribution of annualized residual purchases by wood pellet manufacturers year after year? Who else is prepared to explain how the value of every harvested tree is increased because there is a robust market for wood pellets? Who else will remind policymakers that wood pellets offer rural Americans a viable, price-stable option for home heating?Whether or not the Pellet Fuels Institute will succeed in securing an appliance tax credit for commercial installations or see a biomass neutrality declaration with some real teeth included in a reauthorized Farm Bill remains to be seen. What is crystal clear is that it is up to the Pellet Fuels Institute to tell the story of the sector, again and again. Author: Tim Portz&nbsp; Executive Director, Pellet Fuels Institute&nbsp; tim@pelletheat.org&nbsp; www.pelletheat.org&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

2024-03-04 - Our Evergreen Legislative Priority (Biomass Magazine)

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The Pellet Fuels Institute discusses the importance of advocacy efforts and the upcoming Farm Bill.

Our Evergreen Legislative Priority

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