Grace Napolitano: “I would like to reiterate that we fully support the intent of the legislation without the exemption of NEPA stated on…”

“I would like to reiterate that we fully support the intent of the legislation without the exemption of NEPA stated on page 4, lines 12 15. And I must say that I have working relationships with some of my universities; and one of them, Cal Poly Pomona, has been working with hydrokinetics for awhile. We have been kind of tracking the issues of hydrokinetics and some of their results, the projects that they've got in New Jersey and New York, to be able to generate electricity. We have for at least 5 years been trying to make Congress and the committee understand that this is something that is very viable. Even the heat off the pumping motors is being recaptured and converted into electricity in one of my areas. So I fully understand and I'm glad that it's finally beginning to take hold that there is the ability to create electricity from hydro. We support increased generation at all facilities by developing conduit and in-canal hydropower. And, again, I support all of the provisions that I stated here, but waiving NEPA does not provide the clarity and the certainty needed to be a clear process for the development of hydro at reclamation facilities. That's Federal facilities only. We must ensure that the lease-of-power privilege, the law, is clear and does provide specific certainty. It should be consistent with the FERC process, as stated in the letter from the National Hydropower Association and American Rivers, as introduced into the Record.…”