House panel tangles over forest thinning near power lines

Lawmakers are pushing expanded authorities for the Forest Service, but existing ones don't get enough use, a leading Democrat says.

Congress has expanded the Forest Service’s ability to remove trees around power lines — but the agency isn’t making much use of its capabilities, according to a leading House Democrat.

California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, offered that judgment Tuesday at a hearing on the wildfire dangers posed by vegetation along utility rights of way in national forests. The House has approved legislation targeting that concern, but the bill is still awaiting Senate action.

Republicans called the hearing of the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries to highlight that legislation, H.R. 471, the “Fix Our Forests Act.” It would give the Forest Service stepped-up authorities to clear vegetation as far as 150 feet from electric power rights of way with less environmental review.

Huffman said additional powers already granted to the Forest Service are “simply not being implemented” and that Congress should conduct more oversight to explore why.

Examples of stalled projects are helpful, Huffman said, in showing that the problems are as much at the agency as in the need for legislation.

“I think this is a red flag that agencies are dropping the ball,” Huffman said. “There are things we can do right now.”

Prodding the Senate to act on the bill — which House Republicans have been doing for months — isn’t enough, he said, adding that he’d like to see lawmakers work with Senate Democrats on a final bill. The Senate measure has some Democratic support and passed the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee last year.

“The Senate has its own ideas,” Huffman said. “The Senate is working on those things.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, utility industry representatives agreed that a more intensive approach to managing forest rights of way would protect lines against fires. Speeding the process would end delays that in some cases take several years of federal permitting, they said.

In one case, the Midstate Electric Cooperative in La Pine, Oregon, has been waiting more than five years for approval of a project on the Deschutes National Forest in central Oregon, said the utility’s CEO and general manager, Jim Anderson.

“It’s just at a standstill,” Anderson said.

In another example, CEO Jason Bowling of the Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative in Sierra Vista, Arizona, said his utility waited close to 15 years to obtain a permit to clear vegetation near power lines in a historic area, a project it considered routine.

Once the permit was in hand, the work took about eight weeks, Bowling told the subcommittee.

The Forest Service didn’t immediately return a message Tuesday seeking comment on the issue. But it supports the “Fix Our Forests Act” and regulatory revisions to remove longer environmental reviews for projects in wildfire-prone areas.

In addition, the agency told Congress in budget documents last year that new “master special use permits” for maintenance and vegetation management have helped reduce backlogs.

In 2024, power line operators and owners submitted 605 requests for routine vegetation management, or 70 percent more than in the prior year, the Forest Service said in an annual report.

Westerman, himself a Yale-trained forester, said that despite congressional efforts to make projects move faster, permitting delays persist and vary from place to place depending how the rules are implemented.

That goes against Congress’ intention of making rules smoother and more consistent among land management agencies, he said. Directed to write new categorical exclusions for routine maintenance, he said, agencies didn’t do so.

“Utilities continue to report delays and inconsistencies from unit to unit and agency to agency,” Westerman said.

By:  Marc Heller
Source: E&E Daily

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