FEC joins NWPPA Comments on proposed Draft Environmental Impact Statement
Flathead Electric Cooperative (FEC) recently joined the Northwest Public Power Association (NWPPA) and multiple other consumer-owned utilities in the region in a joint comment to the U.S. Forest Service on its draft proposal for managing old-growth forests. The draft proposal is the result of a 2022 executive order from President Biden that directed the Forest Service to draft a stricter policy on protecting old-growth forests. The Forest Service states, “The proposed amendment is intended to provide consistent direction to conserve and steward old-growth forest conditions in response to rapidly changing climate conditions.”
Your not-for-profit, member-owned Co-op manages hundreds of miles of utility rights-of-way in forested areas. The Forest Service is the largest single landowner in FEC’s service area. FEC and its 58,000+ members value healthy and thriving forests. However, the Co-op must be able to actively manage rights of way to reduce wildfire and outage risks under section 512 of the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA). Unfortunately, the draft proposal contains confusing provisions that could render FLPMA meaningless and contravene congressional intent.
In its comment, FEC and NWPPA requested that public utilities’ ability to practice vegetation management under FLPMA be explicitly recognized and that provisions creating confusion around FLPMA be corrected. Read the full comments here.
