LEESBURG, VA. – The American Wood Council (AWC) submitted a letter in opposition to New Jersey Senate bill S. 1261, which would amend the state construction code to limit heights and areas of wood-frame construction in large residential multi-family construction. Excerpts of the letter are below and the full letter is available here.

WASHINGTON – American Wood Council (AWC) President & CEO Robert Glowinski issued the following statement regarding the Administration’s draft policy memo clarifying what is excluded from “ambient air” for air quality modeling purposes. The memo from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopts a more probabilistic approach for where impacts of new projects must be measured for evaluation.

WASHINGTON – American Wood Council (AWC) President & CEO Robert Glowinski issued the following statement regarding the Administration’s ending its reconsideration and lifting the stay on the 2009 New Source Review (NSR) project aggregation interpretative rule. The action from Acting EPA Administrator Wheeler clarifies when projects are substantially related for their emissions to be added together for permitting purposes.

LEESBURG, VA. – The American Wood Council (AWC) has released a new report on sound transmission, “Technical Report 15 (TR15), Calculation of Sound Transmission Parameters for Wood-Framed Assemblies.”

LEESBURG, VA. – American Wood Council's (AWC) Vice President of Codes & Regulations Kenneth Bland, P.E., issued the following statement regarding the approval of the 14 tall mass timber code change proposals during the International Code Council (ICC) public comment hearings today in Richmond, Va. The proposals will now be subject to ICC’s online voting, which is scheduled to begin in November. The final outcome of the tall mass timber code change proposals is expected in December.

WASHINGTON – American Wood Council (AWC) President and CEO Robert Glowinski issued the following statement in response to Vicki Christiansen’s appointment as the 19th Chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service. Christiansen has been serving as the Interim Chief since March.

WASHINGTON – American Wood Council (AWC) President and CEO Robert Glowinski issued the following statement in response to James (Jim) Hubbard’s confirmation as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Hubbard worked for the Colorado Forest Service for 35 years and served as the state’s chief forester for the last 20 years.

LEESBURG, VA. – Oregon has become the first state to approve the use of science-based building code requirements for tall mass timber buildings under their statewide alternate method (SAM). The SAM program is unique to Oregon, allowing early technical consideration and approval on a statewide basis.