Jim Risch
Jeff Merkley
U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) announced the bipartisan Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act to promote the use of mass timber in federal buildings and military construction. …The Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act would provide a preference in federal building contracts for mass timber products. …The bill creates a two-tier contracting preference for mass timber. The first-tier preference applies to mass timber that is made within the U.S. and responsibly sourced from state, federal, private, and Tribal forestlands. The second tier, which is optional, applies to mass timber products that are sourced from restoration practices, fire mitigation projects, and/or underserved forest owners. Additionally, this bill contains a reporting requirement for a whole building lifecycle assessment. The Act is endorsed by the American Wood Council, American Forest Resource Council, Forest Landowners Association, National Alliance of Forest Owners, Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association [amongst others].
As economist Milton Friedman once quipped, monetary policy has a history of operating with “long and variable lags.” What Friedman was expressing is that it takes some time for the true effects of monetary policy, like the changing of the federal funds rate, to permeate completely through the larger economy. While some industries, like housing, are extremely rate-sensitive, there are others that are less so. Given the current inflation challenge, the question then becomes: how does monetary policy affect inflation across a diverse economy like the United States? This was the question that Leila Bengali and Zoe Arnaut, researchers at the Federal Reserve Board of San Francisco, asked. …The economists examined which components that make up the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index, an inflation measurement produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, are the most and least responsive to changes in the federal funds rate. 
With growing concerns about sustainability, you might wonder: Are paper coffee cups bad for the environment? Are paper cups sustainable? Let’s explore the facts about paper cups. Paper cups are a sustainable choice. Here’s why: Made From a Renewable Resource: Paper cups are made from renewable resources – wood fiber sourced from responsibly managed working forests. These forests play a vital role, capturing carbon dioxide and keeping our air clean. Managed Forests are Planted for the Future: Sustainable forestry practices ensure trees are replanted on working forests. The U.S. pulp and paper industry is not linked to global deforestation and forest degradation. U.S. Forests are Strong: 1/3 of the U.S. is forested. And more than 1 billion trees are planted in the U.S. each year! So, next time you grab a paper cup, you can feel good knowing it comes from a sustainable resource.
A new University of Vermont (UVM) study is flipping the script on what we know about forests and climate. The study, published in Ecology and Evolution, explores forests that experience “cold-air pooling,” a phenomenon where cold air at higher elevations drains down into lower-lying valleys, reversing the expected temperatures—warm at the bottom, cold at the top—that typically occurs in mountainous areas. That is, the air temperature drops with descent from mountain to valley. “With temperature inversions, we also see vegetation inversions,” says lead study author Melissa Pastore. “Instead of finding more cold-preferring species like spruce and fir at high elevations, we found them in lower elevations—just the opposite of what we expect.” “This cold-air pooling is fundamentally structuring the forest,” says study coauthor and UVM professor Carol Adair. This insight “can help …preserve cold-loving species as the climate warms,” says Adair.
