Wyden seeks new path for O&C logging, water bills
E&E News
By Phil Taylor
August 1, 2014
Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) yesterday sought a new legislative path for two of his signature bills aimed at revamping forestry in western Oregon and approving water agreements in Oregon's thirsty Klamath Basin.
Neither proposal had advanced in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee before the August recess, so Wyden added tax provisions that allow the measures to be considered in his legislative home court.
Both S. 2734, the forestry bill, and S. 2727, the water bill, were assigned to Finance, where Wyden plans to advance the measures "as soon as possible," said spokesman Keith Chu.
Both bills are essentially technical updates to the earlier measures, Chu said.
Wyden's forestry measure seeks to more than double logging levels on western Oregon's O&C lands while protecting old-growth trees, wilderness and rivers. It seeks to resolve legal and regulatory gridlock that has kept logging levels on the Bureau of Land Management forests at a small fraction of what they were prior to the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994.
The proposal seeks to thread the political needle between Oregon's timber-dependent O&C counties, which desperately want logging levels to rise to help pad county coffers, and environmental groups, many of which have drawn a hard line against a return to clearcuts of any sort, even patches of clearcuts that have been endorsed by certain forestry experts.
The new O&C bill "reflects conversations [Wyden] has had with the House, Energy Committee staff and the administration [and] agencies," Chu said in an email. "The goal is to clarify the bill intent."
It also calls for an International Trade Commission study of wood products trade patterns and would "equalize tax treatment of privately held timberlands with similar lands held in Real Estate Investment Trusts," he said.
"Wyden is still working to move the bill through the Energy Committee, but because this is such an important Oregon priority, he wanted to open a new path forward for the bill," Chu said.
The Obama administration did not take a position on Wyden's bill when it was heard before ENR in February. A BLM witness raised objections to the bill's prescriptions on environmental reviews and endangered species protections -- concerns shared by environmental groups -- but it lauded the bill's goal of achieving more predictable timber sales on Oregon's O&C lands (E&E Daily, Feb. 7).
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) at the time signaled he would be willing to drop a controversial provision in his O&C bill to transfer management of federal lands to a state-appointed trust, and he pledged to work closely with Wyden on a bicameral solution.
Wyden's staff met in June in Portland with DeFazio and representatives of the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fine-tune Wyden's bill in hopes of an ENR markup, but a vote was never scheduled.
ENR's last markup was June 18. Since replacing Wyden as chair of the committee in February, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has focused largely on oil and gas issues of key importance to her constituency, issues that will likely factor largely in her re-election bid.
Wyden's new Klamath bill includes a tax provision for irrigation companies.
The original bill, which was heard before ENR in June and is co-sponsored by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and California's two senators, would give the federal sign-off on three water agreements reached by local parties, making changes to federal water projects' purposes and authorizing a $500 million budget over five years (E&E Daily, June 4).
Two of the agreements were reached in 2010 and involve hydroelectric power on the Klamath River and its tributaries and restoration.
The third agreement reached by stakeholders this spring provides a guide to rationing water during drought years, increasing river restoration, decreasing water demand by ranchers and boosting economic development for the Klamath Tribes. It would also allow for delivery of water to national wildlife refuges that today have no water allocation under federal delivery projects.
Next Article