The head of the U.S. Forest Service has proposed that the nation replace 15 percent of its gasoline with ethanol made from wood.

This AP story says U.S. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell made the proposal during a speech on the west coast:

“These are ambitious goals, and they would take a concerted national effort to reach,” Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell said in remarks prepared for a speech before the Society of Environmental Journalists Friday night in San Francisco.

At the same time, Kimbell is also calling for the doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide emissions to be absorbed by our forests. While the two might seem contradictory, she says the small trees and underbrush not used for other purposes could be turned into ethanol. Larger trees, helped by the reduction of the unhealthy underbrush, would be left for absorbing the carbon dioxide emissions. Right now, public and private forests are estimated to offset about 10 percent of those emissions. Kimbell wants that number to go to 20 percent by 2020.