Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. HEINRICH. Madam President, I rise today to speak about this bipartisan energy package we are going to be voting on today. Last year my colleagues and I on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee worked together to pass a package that received incredibly strong and bipartisan support at a time when that is hard to come by.
I think it is important to start my comments today by simply thanking the chair and ranking member of the Energy Committee, Senators Murkowski and Cantwell. As Senator Portman mentioned, they showed incredible leadership and also incredible patience. That patience and persistence on behalf of all of us is now paying off.
My home State of New Mexico occupies a very central and interesting place in nearly every facet of our Nation's energy industry, including uranium enrichment, oil and gas production, refining, wind and solar energy, as well as the research and development of new energy technologies--technologies of the future that come out of our National Laboratories and our research universities. That is why I have been working so hard in the Senate to position New Mexico and our Nation to take maximum advantage of new, clean energy sources and innovative technologies and transmission, while intelligently utilizing our reserves of traditional fuels as well.
This package will be the first comprehensive Energy bill to pass the Senate since 2007. I would like to think that it shows that we can look for areas where both parties can work together even if we don't completely agree and, probably most importantly, when we don't completely agree and still move our national priorities and our energy policy forward.
This package also includes permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. LWCF is one of America's most successful conservation programs. It has preserved our outdoor heritage, protected clean air and precious supplies of drinking water, and supported jobs across this entire Nation. Permanent reauthorization of LWCF is a major victory for conservation. I will continue to fight to fully fund LWCF so that we can make strong and smart investments in our public lands.
I wish to particularly focus my remarks today on the Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act, which is a key part of this bill. The Sportsmen's Act has been a long time in the making. I am very proud to lead this bipartisan effort with the Energy and Natural Resources chair, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. After attempts stalled on the sportsmen's bills in recent years, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee worked hard to find areas of agreement. We didn't allow controversial amendments from either side of the aisle to derail these efforts.
Hunting and fishing are an integral part of our American heritage. Without our public lands, that tradition would be lost to many westerners. Our public lands belong to all of the American people.
Like many New Mexicans, some of my favorite memories with my family are from camping, fishing, hiking, and hunting in New Mexico's national forests and on our Bureau of Land Management land. I will always remember taking my son Carter on his first backcountry elk hunting trip in the Carson National Forest. The bull elk that we brought home fed our family for a year, but that experience of backpacking in the high country, sleeping on the ground, and hearing the elk bugle around us will feed his imagination for his entire life. I look forward to having that same sort of experience with his younger brother, Micah.
These traditions--hunting, hiking, camping, and fishing--are among the pillars of western culture and a thriving outdoor industry and recreation economy.
This bipartisan package of sportsmen's bills includes a broad array of measures to enhance opportunities for hunters, anglers, and outdoor recreational enthusiasts of all stripes. It improves access to those public lands, and it reauthorizes critical conservation programs. These programs include the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, or NAWCA, which provides grants to organizations, State and local governments, and private landowners for the acquisition, restoration, and enhancement of critical wetlands for migratory birds--a program that every duck hunter and birder in the United States can agree on; and the National Fish Habitat Conservation Program, which encourages partnerships among public agencies, tribes, sportsmen, private landowners, and other stakeholders to promote fish conservation.
It reauthorizes the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act to direct revenue from the sale of public land to the acquisition of high- priority conservation land from willing sellers to expand fish and wildlife habitat and public recreational opportunities.
Further, this bipartisan package will help boost the outdoor recreation economy writ large. Nationally, according to the Outdoor Industry Association, more than 140 million Americans make their living or make outdoor recreation a priority in their daily lives. When they do that, they end up spending $646 billion on outdoor recreation, resulting in quality jobs for another 6.1 million Americans.
In New Mexico--a small State with just 2 million people--outdoor recreation generates more than $6 billion a year. It provides 68,000 jobs and $1.7 billion in wages and salaries.
A survey done recently by New Mexico Game and Fish found that sportsmen alone spend more than $613 million a year in the State annually. That is an incredible contribution to our local economy. This boost to our economy is felt by small business owners, and it is felt by outfitter guides, hotels, restaurants, and the entire local community, especially in rural areas where we need it most.
Yet, for far too many hunters and anglers, it gets harder and harder each year to find a quiet fishing hole to fish for trout or a secluded meadow to chase elk. As sportsmen face more and more locked gates and more ``no trespassing'' signs, it is more important than ever that we keep our public lands open and welcoming to hunters and anglers. I have heard from sportsmen who have found roads on BLM lands closed to public access without notice. I myself have experienced the frustration of running into a locked gate on roads that used to be open and even maintained by public agencies.
As opportunities for hunting and fishing shrink, we could lose the next generation of hunters and anglers who will fund tens of billions dollars in conservation and restoration through things such as purchasing Duck Stamps, paying the taxes on ammunition, tackle, and motorboat fuel--all of which are dedicated directly to the conservation of fish and wildlife.
This bipartisan sportsmen's package will go a long way toward solving many of these problems--many of the problems that hunters and anglers face in accessing and using our Nation's incredible public lands. I am particularly pleased that the package includes my legislation, the HUNT Act, which requires public land agencies such as the Forest Service and BLM to identify high-priority, landlocked public lands under their management that currently lack legal public access.
Landlocked public lands are technically open to the public but are sometimes literally impossible to reach unless you own a helicopter because there are no public trails, no public roads leading to them. Under the HUNT Act, Federal agencies such as the BLM and the Forest Service are required to work with States, tribes, and willing private landowners to provide public access to those landlocked areas that have a significant potential for hunting, fishing, and other recreational uses.
A study by the Center for Western Priorities estimated that at least half a million acres of public lands in New Mexico are currently landlocked with difficult legal public access. The HUNT Act is the first dedicated effort to reopen these lands to their owners. Public lands such as the Gila Wilderness, Valles Caldera National Preserve, and the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument are some of the most special places to hunt and fish on the planet. These are the places that make New Mexico so enchanting and make our country so special.
I am incredibly excited to see that this natural resources amendment also includes the establishment of two new wilderness areas within the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument northwest of Taos, NM. New Mexicans have a deep connection to the outdoors and benefit from the recreation, wildlife, water, and tourism opportunities that wilderness areas provide.
For many years now, an incredibly broad coalition of northern New Mexicans has worked to conserve the Rio San Antonio and Cerro del Yuta, or Ute Mountain, areas. What is even more special about Ute Mountain is, while today it is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, this is actually a place that the Land and Water Conservation Fund helped put in the public trust. I have no doubt that future generations will be grateful for the many years of work and support that not only make these two new wilderness areas possible but make access to special places like this possible.
These two roadless areas provide important security habitats for elk, mule deer, black bears, golden eagles, and even American pronghorn. I want to say a special thanks to the local community--people who have worked for decades to put this proposal together--as well as to Senator Tom Udall, my colleague from New Mexico, and former Senator Jeff Bingaman, for their incredible leadership as well.
Designating these two new wilderness areas completes a national example of community-driven, landscape-scale conservation that will preserve the culture, the natural resources, and the economy of this incredibly stunning piece of New Mexico.
I am proud to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today to make sure we are making the best use of our energy and natural resources. I am hopeful that, thanks to our vote today, our kids and our grandkids will be catching trout and chasing mule deer on our Nation's incredible public lands for many years to come.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation. This was many years in the making. It was difficult. It required an enormous amount of compromise to get here, but it is an accomplishment worthy of that effort, and I urge my colleagues to vote aye.
Madam President, I also wish to discuss an important component addressed in this bipartisan energy package: critical minerals retrieval from electronics and technological waste.
I am proud of the work accomplished in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and what we have achieved at this point to move this bill forward. I would like to thank Senator Murkowski, along with Senator Wyden, for taking a lead on these issues and getting support for rare earth mineral recycling adopted into the legislation.
This piece of the legislation provides an important solution-- recycling--to reducing electronics waste while ensuring our Nation has the rare earth minerals to meet demand for new technologies. While the average American may not have this issue on their radar, it addresses two major problems.
First, electronics waste is an international issue that is only growing in magnitude as consumers obtain the latest devices--from smartphones to automobiles. The United Nations reported last year that 90 percent of the world's supply of electronic waste is illegally traded and dumped, imperiling lives and the environment. And more unfortunately, the United States generates 3.4 million tons of waste each year.
Second, rare earth minerals are crucial components of almost all of the latest consumer technologies, such as hybrid cars, flat panel televisions, and wind turbines. In 2014, the United States imported at least 50 percent of 43 different minerals. The overwhelming majority of the rare earth reserves and production are located in China. Should a supply disruption occur in China, it will be our manufacturers, consumers, and everyone who depends on the latest technologies for their livelihoods who will suffer the consequences.
Section 3307 of the pending legislation directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a program with Federal agencies, National Laboratories, producers, academic institutions, and other concerned stakeholders aimed at promoting efficient production, use, and recycling of critical minerals. Section 3308 directs the Secretary of Energy to put together a comprehensive analysis on rare earth mineral supply and demand over multiple years, and section 3309 establishes an assessment for the education and training of our workforces in manufacturing, development, and recycling of rare earth minerals. Higher education institutions would be able to apply for competitive grants to help assist in this important critical mineral program work.
By providing support for electronics recycling, we are taking necessary steps to provide economic security, while remediating an international economic and environmental problem.
It is important that bipartisanship does not stop with the Energy Policy Modernization Act, but that we continue to support and incorporate technological development, create job opportunities for our workers, and make our world a better one for future generations.
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Mr. HEINRICH. Madam President, this amendment is a job killer. It blocks a major new 700-mile, multistate electric transmission project.
The Plains & Eastern Clean Line will deliver four gigawatts of economical renewable energy to the Southeast. This is $2 billion of nontaxpayer dollars that will lead to over $6 billion in private investment in new wind generation that will produce enough power to power 1 million homes.
During the 3 years of construction, the Clean Line will create 6,000 local construction jobs. Our Nation's grid is the energy of our economy and it needs modernization. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this job-killing amendment.
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