Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 3043, the Hydropower Modernization Act of 2017. In my area of California's Central Valley, we have the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts. They have been fighting for over 8 years to relicense the Don Pedro hydropower facility. This is on the Tuolumne River. This is where we get our drinking water for the families in our communities; this is where we get our water for irrigation for our farms; yet our ratepayers have been spending money, for over 8 years, just on the relicensing process. They have had engineers and scientists who have done 35 studies. They have done the modeling for FERC to show all the different impacts that will be had here. In the process, they have spent $30 million already. They planned to spend over $50 million. We are not going to have one drop of extra water storage. This is not going to improve the quality of the water that the people in my district are going to drink. No new water, no better quality--it is still going to see the same conditions for our fish, the same conditions for our streambeds. After $50 million and over 8 years, all we will have done is completed over 35 studies to continue to look, continue to go through red tape, and the people in my district will still have a water shortage. We can do things much better. Close to me, we also have the Merced Irrigation District, as well. They have been working over a decade in relicensing the Exchequer Hydroelectric project.…”