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Bank of America Implements Green Paper Policy

Bank of America, the nation’s largest retail bank, and one of the world’s largest consumers of paper products, has revised its long-standing paper policy to give it real teeth. Its new initiative, developed with leading environmental NGOs Metafore and Environmental Defense, aims to reduce virgin fiber demand, protect endangered forests and promote sustainable forestry practices. In addition to simply encouraging best practices that protect endangered forests, the new policy aligns with the bank’s forest practices lending policy. Said Greg Taylor, Supply Chain Management executive, “Suppliers of paper products to the bank must remain in compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing timber harvesting and ensure their third party suppliers also comply with applicable laws and regulations.” The new procurement policy, implemented on April 1, has three primary goals: (1) Source Reduction and Recycling — Minimize the bank’s consumption of paper products containing virgin wood fiber, to reduce demand on forests. (2) Sustainable Forest Practices — Ensure that source forests from which virgin wood fiber is procured are managed using environmentally preferable practices. (3) Protection of Endangered Forests — Require the bank’s suppliers of paper products to identify and appropriately manage endangered and high conservation value forests. Said Environmental Defense senior […]

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House Panel Dismisses Democrats' Hydro, LNG, Refinery Amendments

Democrats yesterday threw as many amendments as they could at the energy bill but very few — and none of the major ones — stuck. After a seven-hour markup session that ended shortly before 9 p.m., the House Energy and Commerce Committee had completed work on three titles of the bill — with 13 titles to go. Today’s session, scheduled to start at 10 a.m., will start with the coal policy section of the bill. Yesterday’s session, a continuation of a markup that began last week, was marked by heated debates over hydropower facility licensing, renewable portfolio standards, liquefied natural gas terminal siting policies and efforts to speed up the licensing process for oil refineries. But it also was notable for some public efforts at forging a compromise. The debate over hydropower licensing pits committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) against ranking member John Dingell (D-Mich.), who charged that the bill’s language weighed too heavily in favor of power generation license applicants and not enough for other groups that use navigable waterways — municipalities, recreation users and shippers — particularly those who fight the hydropower applicants in licensing proceedings. “This is simply, clearly and plainly, obviously unfair,” Dingell said, chiding the […]

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