Richard Pombo: “I yield myself 4 minutes. Just in response to my colleague, there is nothing in here that eliminates the public comment…”

“I yield myself 4 minutes. Just in response to my colleague, there is nothing in here that eliminates the public comment period. There is nothing in here that reduces the public comment. As I have said repeatedly, if the big problem is 20 days or 45 days to respond, then I would be happy to go to 45 days for their support on this bill. In regard to the gentleman's amendment that he offered on the big energy bill, he is perfectly comfortable mandating that a State adopt 15 percent of their energy coming from a renewable resource but he is unwilling to do anything to make that happen. What we are trying to do in this particular piece of legislation is make it easier for people to build renewable energy projects. That right now has proven to be extremely difficult. In flying from the State of New Mexico, which is mostly public lands, into the State of Texas, you cross a line. On one side of the line they have renewable energy projects. On the other side of the line, they do not. It is the same conditions, the same wind, yet it is that much more difficult to build on public lands in the State of New Mexico than it is on private lands in the State of Texas. In my area of the country, in California, in my particular district, we have thousands of windmills. None of those are built on public land. They are built on private land. But you have to build windmills where the wind blows. You cannot just do it where somebody thinks it is a good idea.”