Washington, DC (Jan. 2010) - The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
recently approved $514 million in subsidies under the Department of
Agriculture’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). As now structured, BCAP
will divert the U.S. wood fiber supply from its current use in higher
value composite wood products such as furniture and cabinets to instead be used
as fuel.
This is a direct threat to all industries that rely on composite panel
products, and will hurt the U.S. economy as well as the environment. With
Congress reconvening this month, we are asking for their direct intervention to
suspend the BCAP program until a well-considered regulation can be developed by
USDA that amends the list of materials eligible for the subsidy.
The 2008 Farm Bill states that renewable biomass includes materials that
“would not otherwise be used for higher-value products. ” BCAP's inclusion of
wood used for higher value products is contrary to the intent of Congress and
represents a fatal flaw in the way the program has been crafted by USDA. As
proposed by Congress, BCAP had the laudable goal of fostering
the diversification of America's fuel supply through the use of unutilized
“renewable biomass.” That goal has been disregarded by USDA, and the eligible
materials list for the BCAP subsidy includes wood now used to make furniture,
cabinets, floor and many other consumer products - wood needed to operate those
businesses. Instead, that wood will be diverted and burned as a result of BCAP.
BCAP has been rushed though without any consideration of its unintended
consequences, and these include environmental considerations as well as loss of
jobs. As structured today, BCAP will serve to increase the U.S. contribution to
global warming instead of mitigating it. Wood is a great natural resource. If
existing industries that are using it responsibly suffer as a result of BCAP and
manufacturing plants close, the ripple affect on the economy will be enormous.
Consumers will have fewer choices, thousands of jobs will be threatened, and
less environmentally friendly materials will be substituted.
BIFMA and its members ask that Congress immediately suspend the BCAP so that
USDA can amend the list of materials eligible for the subsidy by removing
materials destined for higher value products.
For more information, visit
http://www.bcapreform.org and see recent Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/09/AR2010010902023.html
About BIFMA
Established in 1973, BIFMA’s mission is to lead, advocate, inform and
develop standards for the North American office and institutional furniture
industry. As a not-for-profit organization BIFMA provides an effective forum
for Members to cooperate and collaborate on appropriate industry issues. We
develop voluntary product and industry standards that support safe, healthy and
sustainable environments; publish key industry statistics; advocate for
legislation and government regulation that have a direct impact on the health of
the industry; and facilitate meaningful dialog and education to support our core
services and the industry we serve.
