Paul Tonko: “I thank the ranking member of our subcommittee, the gentleman from Illinois, for his leadership and hard work on the…”

“I thank the ranking member of our subcommittee, the gentleman from Illinois, for his leadership and hard work on the subcommittee and for yielding me this time. Mr. Chairman, I want to express a few concerns with the bill before us. But first, let me say that I support hydropower and believe it must be maintained as an important part of our generation mix. Hydro is an excellent source of reliable, zero-emissions electricity generation. In order to address climate change and increase clean energy production, it is, indeed, critical that we make licensing and relicensing of these projects feasible. This is an important issue for my home State of New York. Hydropower resources produce 19 percent of New York State's total electricity generation in 2016. The average age of New York's hydropower facilities is over 50 years, and many projects are expected to go through the relicensing process in the next 15 years. I want to reiterate that Members on both sides of the aisle want to see these projects developed within reasonable timelines. I understand the current challenges in relicensing and the desire to bring greater certainty to the process. However, I do not think the bill before us would address those concerns in a balanced approach, which takes into account the legitimate concerns of State and Tribal governments and environmental stakeholders. The process that produced this bill was flawed from the beginning.…”