Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would allow taxpayers to include solid American manufactured hardwood products under the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit.
The Solid American Hardwood Tax Credit Act would include products such as flooring and paneling as qualified home energy efficiency improvements.
“Pennsylvania is blessed with some of the finest hardwoods in the world, which have provided thousands of jobs across the Commonwealth,” U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), who co-introduced the bill, said.
Hardwood helps support more sustainable building practices by sequestering carbon and serving as long-term carbon storage in residential structures. Carbon storage, in turn, reduces the impact of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
“Without active management, responsible harvesting, and robust markets, the health of our hardwood forests — and the industries and communities that depend on them — are at serious risk,” Dallin Brooks, National Hardwood Lumber Association executive director said. “Providing consumers with a tax credit to purchase real, American grown, American manufactured solid hardwood products over cheap, imported substitutes will save thousands of American jobs and small businesses in rural America.”
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) co-introduced the bill. The legislation will provide meaningful environmental and economic benefits, the lawmakers said.