Georgia lawmakers looking to promote emerging markets for timber

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ATLANTA – The state should actively promote developing sustainable aviation fuel and mass timber construction as emerging markets for a struggling timber industry, a legislative study committee recommended Thursday.

While Georgia is the nation’s No-1 state for forestry, the industry has been hit with shrinking demand for timber, resulting in an oversupply.

“Market volatility and out-of-state closures within the supply chain have posed significant risks and continue to pose significant risks,” state Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, said Thursday at the final meeting of the Senate Advancing Forest Innovation in Georgia Study Committee. “These challenges result in higher prices for consumers and create uncertainty for the industry.”

The study committee chaired by Kennedy unanimously approved recommendations that include funding a Georgia-based nonprofit or research facility affiliated with an academic institution that would work to develop innovative forestry markets including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

SAF is a biofuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 85% compared with conventional petroleum-based fuel. The European Union will require commercial aircraft to burn at least 6% SAF by 2030, a percentage that will increase gradually each year until it reaches 70% in 2050.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded two grants to help accelerate the development of SAF in Georgia. 

SAF producer LanzaJet will receive nearly $3.1 million to support a new production facility in Soperton, while Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta will get $240,000 to build the infrastructure needed to deploy SAF at the world’s busiest airport.

The other technology included in the study committee’s recommendations – mass timber construction – involves using prefabricated wood panels as an alternative to concrete and steel in building multi-family residential or commercial structures that are larger than single-family homes. The first commercial building in Georgia constructed with mass timber is at Atlanta’s Ponce City Market.

The study committee also suggested the state conduct a study to determine what can be done to promote Georgia’s pulp-and-paper industry. Mills have been going out of business in large numbers due to foreign competition.

Finally, the panel’s report asks the Georgia Forestry Commission and Georgia Forestry Association to put together a list of burdensome regulations that are hurting the timber industry.

The recommendations will be forwarded to the full Senate to consider during the 2025 session of the General Assembly starting in January.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Capitol Beat.