Oregon Public Broadcasting

The director of the University of Oregon’s sustainability institute was on Capitol Hill Wednesday, advocating for investments in green projects in rural areas.

Cassandra Moseley lobbied the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to spend five billion dollars on the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

She said hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects have already gotten the environmental approvals they need. She told senators it's important to target rural economies.

Cassandra Moseley: “I recommend that Congress include in the stimulus, that this stimulus package prioritize actions for those who will be hardest hit. Those are going to be the people, many of them, dependent on public lands, or live in communities close to public lands, who aren’t going to benefit from the larger stimulus package.”

Moseley cited a recent report indicating that the Forest Service and BLM could create more than 120,000 jobs, with an investment somewhat bigger than the one she’s asking for.

Mosely told the senate committee that the projects don’t involve contentious logging.