Environmental and community groups call on U.S. Senate to avoid biomass riders in Interior Appropriations

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – As the US Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies prepares to mark up the fiscal year 2017 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, environmentalists and local community organizations are urging appropriators to keep it free from anti-environmental policy riders that threaten our air, land, water and wildlife. In a letter signed by over 45 organizations they highlighted as a particular concern that the bill may contain a harmful policy rider that will interfere with the climate science on biomass.

This year Congress has made a series of attempts to settle scientific issues around biomass by legislative decree. The Senate energy bill (S.2012) contained a provision that instructed the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to treat biomass as carbon neutral. The New York Times and the Washington Post editorial boards both objected to this provision. Provisions on biomass have also appeared in the House fiscal year 2017 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill as well as the Senate’s fiscal year 2016 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

“Interfering with the science of biomass is a dangerous precedent that could undermine efforts to protect our climate,” said Friends of the Earth Climate and Energy Program Director Benjamin Schreiber. “The Senate should not be using must-pass spending bills to provide favors to polluting corporations by rolling back environmental protections.”

To see the letter with the full list of signatories, go here.

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Expert contact: Ben Schreiber, (202) 280-8743, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]