David Schweikert: “This is fun to have one of these where we all sort of agree on it. Let me put in a little character--you heard some of…”

“This is fun to have one of these where we all sort of agree on it. Let me put in a little character--you heard some of the basic mechanisms. The Salt River Project is a waterpower quasi-municipality. It is very unique. It actually predates statehood for us. Think about that. It actually was put together before we actually became a State. What is unique in Arizona is--many of you have heard the discussion of the thing called the duck curve. In the late afternoon you get lots of photovoltaic power and then the sun goes down, and you don't get lots of photovoltaic power, but we still run our air conditioners. We need some ginormous batteries for those of us that live in the desert Southwest, hence, comes the concept of pumped storage. Where this is at is actually where I live. I live probably 25 minutes away from this. It is the lake I grew up on. To try to get this visually, picture a series of lakes that are our water reservoirs for the Phoenix area, and then these cliffs that are just tremendously high--it is a very impressive area--and the concept of using gravity as a battery. I appreciate everyone from our delegation who has been very, very helpful on this, but this is one of those occasions where it makes sense. It is environmentally sound. It actually allows us to take care of something that is somewhat unique for us in the Southwest; and that is the solar power we produce. Mr.…”