Steven Holt: “You may think that the gentleman from Washington has suddenly decided that he's going to accelerate renewable energy…”

“You may think that the gentleman from Washington has suddenly decided that he's going to accelerate renewable energy deployment in the United States; but the fact is, no, he has not gotten religion. This is not intended to accelerate renewable energy. It is to remove protections for the environment. The amendment really is highly problematic. It has very little upside and significant downside, both in terms of protecting the environment and in producing renewable energy. The measure fundamentally changes public lands policy in a way that could be extremely harmful. Completely gutting bedrock environmental review processes is not something that should be done lightly. It shouldn't be done with a 10- minute debate on an amendment on a completely separate bill. This $250 billion transportation bill is not the appropriate place to debate a fundamental shift of public lands policy. We spent nearly a day debating this in committee, and it deserves a debate at least that thorough here on the floor. Right now, a renewable energy project that's proposed for Federal lands can get a green light, a yellow light, or a red light from the permitting agency. What the gentleman from Washington would do with his amendment is get rid of the yellow light. By only allowing consideration of the proposed action and not allowing any no-action alternative, you know what that means, Mr. Chairman?…”