HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.2.b - John Stonebraker - comment re_ 3.2.b federal permitting legislationFrom:John S.
To:Clerk of the Board
Subject:comment re: 3.2.b federal permitting legislation
Date:Tuesday, February 24, 2026 8:57:40 AM
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Fire Safe Council, not Counsel.
The remainder of this letter is similarly slipshod.
I too would urge our senators to support legislative efforts balancing
environmental protection and promptness. That would not be my
description of Bruce Westerman's legislative efforts. The Orwellian "Fix
Our Forests Act" fails to fund the portions that would actually benefit
our forests while eliminating safeguards for corporations desiring to
ravage them. Section 212, for example, allows utilities to wantonly
remove healthy trees in the same manner that caused the 2015 Butte Fire.
Since record-setting fires like Anderson Creek (2016), Smokehouse Creek
(2024), and Park (2024) have grown out of control in private grazing
lands, conflating removal of woody biomass from forests with fire
prevention remains misguided.
Westerman's SPEED Act is similarly flawed. Whether the good parts
outweigh the bad is far from clear, and 196 Representatives voted
negative. I would be urging our Senators to amend the bill so it hastens
rather than forestalls the green energy transition needed to meet RCP3.4
targets before fire weather gets too much worse. County Administration
drew the clever connection between the Park and Borel fires and the
unprecedented July 2024 heatwave and yet advocates for expediting fossil
fuel extraction while ensuring clean energy projects blocked by the
current administration remain blocked. This is a strange banner for
Butte County to fly.
John Stonebraker
Magalia, CA