Mark Hatfield: “first of all, I commend my colleague for her keen interest and her willingness to become involved in one of the great…”

“first of all, I commend my colleague for her keen interest and her willingness to become involved in one of the great issues that confronts the Pacific Northwest--not only the Pacific Northwest, but the entire country, and not just for the entire country, but now something that is an issue that is worldwide. I want to just say briefly that we get ourselves oftentimes so focused on our own geographic focus of interest, we sometimes forget the impact of policies that affect the entire world. A group of us went to Siberia to see the timber situation in Siberia this last August and to review the cutting policies of that part of the world. Due to the stalemate and the gridlock in the Northwest, which has succeeded pretty much in eliminating this Northwestern part of the United States which is, worldwide, the greatest productive area for softwood timber in the world, effectively eliminating it from the area of supply for one of the great demands in our own country, housing--housing for many people: poor, middle income, rich, everybody. The only product for housing that really is a renewable product that is grown by free solar energy and that can be replaced and renewed, renewed, and renewed, as it is a thesis of our whole timber policy, is a renewable resource. Let me just say that we are, today, witnessing what I call a modern type of environmental imperialism, much the same as the 18th and 19th century imperialism of Britain and the European powers.”