(Washington, D.C.) - Montana's senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus is leading a bipartisan effort to urge the federal government to take steps to use American-grown timber in new construction for government office buildings. In a letter to the head of the General Services Administration, Baucus urged the GSA to rethink a practice that hurts Montana forestry jobs by discriminating against American grown wood.

"This is one more way we can work to support Montana timber industry jobs.  Millions of acres of Montana forests are unfairly left out of federal government construction projects because of this rule. We have a wealth of environmentally sustainable building materials in Montana and I'm going to push the General Services Administration to use our home grown products first. Montana jobs depend on it," said Baucus.

The General Services Administration (GSA) owns and leases over 354 million square feet of space in 8,600 buildings across the country.

In a letter co-signed by Senator Vitter (R-Louisiana), Senator Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), and Senator Boozman (R-Arkansas) to General Services Administrator Martha Johnson, Baucus argued green building standards for new construction hurt Montana forestry jobs by using a faulty selection process. Baucus explained:

• The General Services Administration mandates new construction to adhere to its green building rating system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
• But, the system fails to recognize two of the largest forest certification programs in the U.S. known as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the American Tree Farm system.
• 1.2 million acres of forests in Montana are certified through either the Sustainable Forestry Initiative or the American Tree Farm System.

In March, Baucus also urged the U.S. Forest Service to stop discriminating against American timber for new construction.

Text of letter:

June 23, 2011

Ms. Martha Johnson
Administrator
U.S. General Services Administration
1800 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20405

Dear Administrator Johnson:

We write today to respectfully request that the General Services Administration receive input from all interested parties as part of the study required under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to recommend a green building certification system.  The GSA is required to review its green building certification system every 5 years, and the newest recommendation is expected to come out later this year.  We support GSA's efforts to use environmentally sustainable materials, however, we are concerned that the system chosen for new building construction may have unintended consequences for American forestry and result in fewer forestry jobs.

As the result of the 2006 evaluation by GSA of sustainable building rating systems, United States Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system was chosen for new building construction.  This decision has been a concern for us because the LEED rating system does not give credit to two of the largest, independently audited forest certification programs in the United States - the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the American Tree Farm system (ATFS).  Over 84 million acres of forests in the United States are SFI or ATFS certified.  We are concerned that the GSA will again recommend a rating system that will place domestically forested wood at a disadvantage, thereby distorting the market and costing jobs. 

The upcoming decision to recommend a green building certification system should be based on sound policy and peer-reviewed scientific analysis.  An important part of making sound policy decisions is taking input from those that are affected by a decision.  We call on GSA to have a period of public comment before making a decision on what certification system to recommend.  We also call on GSA to ensure that the scientific basis of its recommendation is accepted in the scientific community.  Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Sincerely,

Max Baucus                                                                             David Vitter

U.S. Senator                                                                             U.S. Senator

James Inhofe                                                                            John Boozman

U.S. Senator                                                                             U.S. Senator

(end letter text)

Contact: Kate Downen 406-224-5056 or Kathy Weber 406-657-5915

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