Rep. Ed Orcutt delivers floor speech in opposition to natural gas ban bill (HB 1589) | Jan. 22, 2024

there are other grave concerns uh for the impacts of this bill and I received last Friday and we probably all have received uh a letter a press release from the association of Western Pulp and Paper workers may I read from the email that I received last week please proceed thank you Mr Speaker it says attached you will find a press release dated January 19th 2024 detailing the awppw stance on how Bill 1589 currently under discussion in the Washington State Legislature the bill poses a critical challenge to the future of the Pulp and Paper industry especially concerning the supply of natural gas which is indispensable for the operation of Pulp and Paper Mills Mr Speaker I probably don't have to tell you that we just lost a paper mill this past year in the Tacoma area what you may not know is what the impact that has not only on those paperworkers but all of the people that supplied wood to area chipping facilities that supplied that Mill with wood chips that has broad reaching implications in fact it's even affected the timber Market down in my area one of the log buyers down there stopped buying pulpwood all together that means small land owners large land owners had no place to take that wood so instead of being utilized made into a usable product left on the landing to rot and you know what happens when wood rots carbon goes back into the atmosphere the chipping facility down in Long View has actually started taking wood again but when I looked at the prices most recently which uh I got last week the cost to deliver those logs to that chipping facility is higher than what they pay that means land owners will have to pay to get that wood to them this has a negative impact on pul paper workers on those good union jobs that pay benefits and great wages to all of the suppliers of all of those Mills to all the small land owners to the loggers it has far-reaching impacts and passage of this bill can continue those negative impacts on an industry that is already struggling we need to do things to to try and bring Mills back to get more of that paper production done here in the United States where we have the better environmental laws here this bill chases environmental stewardship and yet causes the exact opposite to happen because every time we lose a mill in the state of Washington a new Mill starts up in China where they don't follow the same environmental regulations that we do here every time we export those jobs that manufacturing overseas we actually harm the climate instead of benefit it for those reasons Mr Speaker I encourage you to vote no on this bill today thank you