Canadian hysterics against the American paper industry have reached an all-time fevered pitch.

Self-proclaimed anti-American paper crusader Kevin Mason called renewable-energy tax credits that American producers receive "perverse" and "silly" in the April 24 MinnPost article "Paper firms reap billions from tax credit — but should they?"

In a separate article in a Canadian newspaper, Mason, managing director of paper and forest products for Equity Research Associates in British Columbia, opined that the credits are "unethical" and on the same level as the financial malfeasance that led to the global subprime mortgage and bank crisis.

As a leader in a union that represents 550,000 workers, I am offended by the suggestion that receiving tax credits encouraging and supporting the generation of clean, renewable energy is the moral equivalent of financial shenanigans that led to the collapse of the housing market and cost more than 300,000 workers since 2006 — almost one-quarter of my fellow American wood products workers — their jobs.

Requires mixing of alternative, fossil fuels
The fact is, by encouraging the use of alternative fuels, the credit is good business and good for the environment because it requires the industry to mix alternative fuels in with fossil fuels for the required energy to operate facilities.

Critics claim that American paper companies are increasing their fossil-fuel use as a result of the credit. But that assertion is inaccurate. Papermakers have always used fossil fuels. Both International Paper and Boise, Inc. maintain that they are experiencing no net increase in their fossil-fuel use.

Encouraging renewable energy generation and use is a priority of the U.S. public and government, and both President Barack Obama and congressional leaders are promoting policies to increase it.  Paper workers have been on the vanguard of this environmentally responsible behavior for more than 70 years, with American paper mills producing an average of two-thirds of their energy needs onsite with carbon-neutral, renewable biomass fuel. 

We are proud that our industry is finally getting its long-overdue recognition for the contributions it has made to renewable energy and the goal of displacing fossil-fuel use, and we hope our Canadian friends can soon join us in putting the strength of their federal government behind the goal of supporting papermakers' responsible environmental behavior as represented by their generation of clean energy from biomass.

Mike Draper is vice president of the Western District, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Bend, Ore.