FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 27, 2024
EPIC has joined with the Battle Creek Alliance, Center for Sustainable Economy, and Shasta Environmental Alliance to push for more transparency around pollution and climate change impacts from California’s logging industry. This coalition is sharing a new report by the Center for Sustainable Economy on the amount of CO2 released by logging operations in Shasta and Siskiyou Counties.
CONTACT
Marily Woodhouse, Director, Battle Creek Alliance
battlecreekalliance@gmail.com (530) 474-5803
John Talberth, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Center for Sustainable Economy
jtalberth@sustainable-economy.org (510) 384-5724
A new report by the Center for Sustainable Economy focuses on two California Counties to expose a critical gap in California’s climate strategy: the unregulated greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the state’s logging industry. Despite California’s reputation as a climate leader, California does not monitor GHG emissions from the logging and wood products sector and has no plans to do so. Erroneously assuming that logging-related emissions are offset by future forest growth or the substitution of wood products for more carbon intensive materials, California ignores the fact that logging practices emit far more carbon than the natural forests they replace, significantly contributing to climate instability. John Talberth underscores the urgency: “If California wants to preserve its reputation as a climate leader, it is essential for Governor Newsom and other elected officials to reject false narratives that allow Big Timber to overrun the state’s forestlands with intensive logging activities that generate significant greenhouse gas emissions while making the land more susceptible to fire, floods, and heat waves.”
The report estimates that logging and associated road building in Shasta and Siskiyou counties alone emit over 4 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year–comparable to the annual emissions from 883,000 gas-powered passenger vehicles. The report calculates that these activities are likely to generate between $487 million and $1.4 billion in climate damages each year, an amount far more than any revenues generated by logging and wood products. Despite this, the state has yet to implement regulations that would account for and curb these emissions.
Marily Woodhouse, Director of Battle Creek Alliance in Shasta County, emphasizes the disparity in regulation: “The timber industry has long operated outside the regulations governing other sectors, worsening climate change in California’s timber counties. It’s time for state leaders to enact strong regulations to count and control emissions from logging. California must walk the talk as a climate leader.”
David Ledger, President of Shasta Environmental Alliance (SEA) adds, “This report exposes the failure of California to regulate and account for greenhouse gas emissions, from tree felling to the final lumber product at the mill. Ignoring the emissions from logging operations weakens California’s efforts to address climate change.”
Frank Toriello, President of We Advocate Thorough Environmental Review (WATER), emphasizes the broader implications: “Logging is a major source of both biogenic and fossil fuel-related emissions and a major contributor to other climate damages, such as increased wildfire risk and water shortages. This report enumerates these impacts and presents a method of calculating total GHG emissions from logging and the cost of attendant damages.”
The report also reveals that the state’s current practices violate key climate policies, especially concerning the additionality and permanence requirements for credible carbon offsetting. “The state of California refuses to assess the negative impact that industrial logging has on our forests and climate,” says Melodie Meyer, Conservation Attorney at EPIC. “This is why we must put pressure on California’s legislators to regulate emissions from logging and fully consider the logging industry’s impacts.” The state has the tools and data to address this issue – what remains is the political will to act.
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