California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act of 2008

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 3682 will designate more than 180,000 acres of new and potential wilderness in Riverside County, California. H.R. 3682 also will add 31 miles of new river segments to the National Wild and Scenic River System and add nearly 8,400 acres to the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.

This legislation is carried by Representative Bono Mack, the author of the bill. We want to commend her on her diligence. She has spent years crafting this legislation. Her hard work has paid off with a conservation achievement that takes careful account of fire concerns, which are oftentimes a part of the natural conditions of that area, recreational interests and all of the magnificent resources that lie within her beautiful district.

This measure, H.R. 3682, will protect dramatic mountain vistas and vast desert landscapes, coastal sage and scrub and chaparral, and ancient Joshua trees. The areas covered by the bill include the largest ironwood ecosystem in the California desert, and one of the most pristine watersheds in southwestern California.

This legislation has broad support from over 400 organizations and businesses including local, State and national wilderness groups, as well as the National Hispanic Environmental Council.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support this measure, H.R. 3682, as amended.

I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals on Public Lands, it is my opinion that the oil and gas companies would not be buying the leases to these lands if they did not believe that oil and gas could be produced there. Yet these same companies are producing in other areas. Two months ago I was in the Gulf of Mexico surveying a lot of good work that is being done there, American companies and others that are actively drilling for both oil and gas.

But let me repeat again the current circumstance which we are dealing with. Trends include not only the fact that 13 million acres are actually being used out of the 47 million acres that are on shore, but when you look at offshore, 10 million acres of the gas and oil land that has been leased to these companies are being used out of the 44 million acres that are currently being leased.

If we extrapolate from that, the fact is that today's production rates on Federal land and waters, we can estimate that 68 million acres of leased but currently inactive Federal land and waters could produce 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day, if the vast amount of land that is leased on which permits to drill have been allowed but is not currently being utilized were taking place. Are there other opportunities or options out there along with all of the other variables of trying to come together with a comprehensive energy plan, certainly. But I think my parents told me a long time ago that to be prudent, you first ought to use those available resources that have been approved by both the Federal Government in terms of Federal lands, both on shore as well as offshore, and the States that we are also dealing with in the circumstance.

So we are inventorying them and keeping a close eye on it, and we want to encourage that those lands already leased are utilized to the degree they could be utilized. And clearly, obviously, we will continue to look at all of the renewable sources of energy that are in our energy toolbox because there is no one silver bullet.

I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source