Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, it really is amazing that the bureaucratic tangle that has been caused by our so-called environmental laws has now reached the point that even dead trees on public lands that threaten to fall on power lines and cause major forest fires cannot be removed without permission from Federal bureaucrats. And then to add insult to insanity, when the bureaucracy denies or delays permission and a fire results, the cost of the fire is paid by the utility's customers through higher household electricity bills. Mr. LaMalfa mentioned a situation in La Pine, Oregon, where the Midstate Electric Cooperative begged the Forest Service for permission to trim trees that were threatening their power lines, and they were refused. Well, sure enough, when one of those trees fell on a power line and started a fire, the utility's customers were forced to pay the firefighting costs that resulted, a third of a million dollars. Carbon Power & Light warned the Forest Service of trees threatening their lines. The Forest Service required them first to conduct $1.6 million of environmental studies paid by the utility's customers. If there had been a fire in the meantime, they would have had to pay those costs as well. Mr. LaMalfa's bill basically does two things: First, it exempts such projects from time-consuming and costly environmental reviews.…”