Wildfire Reduction Market Expansion Act of 2026

This bill amends the Clean Air Act to expand the definition of renewable biomass for the renewable fuel standard, aiming to increase market opportunities for wildfire reduction materials. It revises the types of materials that qualify as renewable biomass, including certain forest products, vegetation from defensible space and wildland-urban interface areas, and materials from non-federal, federal, and tribal lands under specific conditions.

Sec. 2, Definition of renewable biomass: The bill restructures and expands the definition of renewable biomass in the Clean Air Act. It adds materials from forest products manufacturing, such as wood residuals, sawdust, and bark, excluding commonly recycled paper. It includes trees, shrubs, and parts from non-federal land if managed under a forest certification program, classified for property tax as forest land, or with a landowner attestation of long-term timber production. It also covers materials from National Forest System or public lands if certified by the Secretary of Agriculture or Interior as by-products of land management, fuel reduction, ecological restoration, or pre-commercial thinning, not reasonably suitable as sawlogs, and sourced consistently with federal laws and forest plans. Additionally, it includes vegetation from defensible space around structures or infrastructure, and from wildfire risk reduction activities in the wildland-urban interface. The bill allows certifications or attestations to be in letter form from the landowner or local federal office, includes land owned by Native Corporations as non-federal land, and clarifies that forest plans need not expressly identify renewable fuel as an end use if the underlying activity is authorized.