Policy Initiatives

• Climate and Clean Energy Policy
• Involvement in Policy Initiatives
• Policy Developments

CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY POLICY

Weyerhaeuser believes public policies that are based on sound science, set forth clear objectives and standards of performance, and leverage free market economics can achieve beneficial change with respect to energy security and greenhouse gas emissions.

We believe the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is through market-based mechanisms. We prefer Congressional action on climate and energy legislation, as this approach is preferable to regulations of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. We support policies that:

• Recognize the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the combustion of biomass and biomass derived fuels as carbon neutral.
• Include a broad definition of “renewable biomass” that broadly recognizes renewable forest resources, including energy crops grown on forestlands and the forest product industry’s existing investment in renewable energy.
• Establish a robust domestic and international market-based program which recognizes and allows credits for the sequestration and storage of carbon through reforestation, afforestation, avoided deforestation, harvested wood products, and forest management projects.
• Incent and recognize combined heat and power cogeneration facilities for their inherent energy efficiency capacity.
• Incorporate price mechanisms to ensure energy intensive manufacturers are not at a competitive disadvantage in international markets, such as no-cost carbon emission allowances.
• Provide credit for early actions that reduce GHG emissions or increase sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide taken over the past decade.

INVOLVEMENT IN POLICY INITIATIVES

We support and are actively involved in national and international climate and clean energy policy initiatives, including:

• U.S. Climate Action Partnership
• The Forest Products Association of Canada
• The Business Environmental Leadership Council for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
• The World Business Council for Sustainable Development Energy & Climate focus area core team
• The World Resource Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development Energy greenhouse gas protocol standard development projects
• The U.S. Business Roundtable's Energy and Environment programs
• The Forest Climate Working Group
• The Western Climate Initiative
• 25 x '25 Alliance
• Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest
• National Alliance of Forest Owners

POLICY DEVELOPMENTS

In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule for stationary sources of greenhouse gases called the tailoring rule, which includes a 3-step approach to phase in greenhouse gas emissions by modifying emission thresholds under the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, in the rule EPA included emissions from combustion of biomass and biomass-derived fuels in the threshold calculation. This is the first ruling by EPA that does not recognize biomass as carbon neutral, which is the accepted international protocol by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, European Union Emission Trading System, and even many other EPA and Department of Energy programs.

In 2011, EPA deferred regulation of carbon emissions from the combustion of biomass for three years. In the interim, the agency will complete a two-year study of these emissions, followed by additional rule-making on biomass. We are working with the agency and other stakeholders in support of a long-term solution that recognizes the carbon neutrality of biomass emissions.

Several of our operations are subject to federal, state and provincial greenhouse gas reporting rules. In October 2009, EPA published the "Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gas" rule and in March 2011 deferred the reporting deadline until September 2011. All our facilities that are subject to GHG reporting rules are currently in compliance with requirements.