Colorado Wilderness Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment to require a study of any land impacted by the legislation to determine if these areas contain geothermal resources or minerals needed for battery storage, renewable energy technology, or electric vehicles.

We agree that we want to reduce human emissions that are polluting our ecosystem. Renewable energy will play a role long into the future, and we must ensure we have the resources needed to make solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries here in America.

President Biden agrees. Just yesterday he issued an executive order to ensure the United States has access to domestic critical minerals. President Biden's fact sheet on the executive order says: ``While the U.S. is a net exporter of electric vehicles, we are not a leader in the supply chain associated with electric battery production. The U.S. could better leverage our sizable lithium reserves and manufacturing know-how to expand domestic battery production.''

To state the obvious, if we are accidentally locking up lithium with this bill while President Biden says we should do the opposite, this is something Congress should know. This amendment does not prevent any part of the lands package from being implemented, as currently drafted.

I am a strong supporter of the local-driven public lands legislation, which is why I ensured my amendment would not impact any of the bills on the ground level. There is parts of this package I actually support. Mr. Huffman's bill included in the public lands bill was supported by me last year.

This amendment is not a criticism of this lands package. It is about listening to science and combating climate change. More information is always better, more science is better. That is all this amendment does, give us more science-backed information as Congress faces the issues of producing renewable energy in the future.

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Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, to my friend from Colorado, I welcome his invitation to work together on many of these issues. I point out that we are simply asking for a study so that we know what is there. We are not stopping anything. We are simply asking for a study.

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Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. I suspect you have an answer ready to tell me, and I would love to hear that.
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Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.

Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question are postponed. Amendments En Bloc No. 2 Offered by Mr. Neguse

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