The Wood and Fiber Supply Chain Experts
Rural County Timber Payments to End
From the June 2008 Forest2Mill newsletter.
Logging communities in the Pacific Northwest will be among those hit
hardest by the recent decision in the U.S. House to vote down a bill to reauthorize a federal
payment program for schools and other services in rural counties due primarily to disagreements
about how to make oil companies pay for it. At dispute is whether to collect royalties from
existing offshore oil and gas leases or to collect them from new offshore oil projects.
Under the “timber payments program,” rural counties received federal funding to offset lost
revenue caused by conservation measures that sharply reduced logging on federal lands. The Public
Land Communities Transition Act (H.R. 3058) was defeated June 5 under special House rules which
required a two-thirds vote, rather than a simple majority. Proponents of the timber payments
programs were dealt a second blow when an emergency one-year funding measure was cut from a Senate
defense spending bill June 19. The bill could be revived for a House vote under normal rules, but
no action is expected before the July recess. Congress will reconvene in September.
Read the
update to this article that appeared in our December 2008 issue.