My name is Charles Branch and I work at the International Paper Franklin Mill. I am proud to have worked for a company dedicated to the community and the environment for nearly thirty years.

I am writing you to OPPOSE Virginia DEQ’s proposed regulation to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative (RGGI) because it does not clearly recognize the carbon neutrality of biomass emissions and does not clearly exempt existing industrial boilers.

Modifying this legislation would remedy the strong opposition from people at our mill, community and other industrial partners.  We rely on biomass residuals to power our operations and any such regulation that impacts how we do business could be costly and have adverse consequences for our operations today and our potential future.

The mill is the here for the community. I rely on the mill for my source of income as do so many others. We make a sustainable product out of a renewable resource with a significant portion of our energy sourced from biomass combustion.

The regulation should apply only to GHG emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and not emissions from biomass combustion.