BPC Action Applauds TREES Act in Energy and Environment

BPC Action supports the Residential Energy and Economic Savings (TREES) Act of 2021 and commends Sens. Booker (D-NJ) and Capito (R-WV) and Reps. Matsui (D-CA), Cleaver (D-MO), Sarbanes (D-MD), McKinley (R-WV), and Thornberry (R-TX) for its re-introduction. We are glad to see congressional support for innovative energy policies that recognize the multiple benefits of trees for reducing both emissions and residential energy consumption.  

The TREES Act establishes a Department of Energy grant program with the goal of planting at least 300,000 trees each year. This will increase community tree canopy cover, reducing residential energy consumption and therefore cutting costs for households that spend a large percentage of their income on home energy bills. Trees and forests in developed areas of the U.S. are an important and sometimes overlooked domestic carbon sink that stores about 640 million metric tons of carbon (equivalent to about 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide).