Doug LaMalfa Slams Dems For Climate Change Neglect: ‘What Are We Actually Doing?’

7/13/2024

On Tuesday, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) delivered remarks on the House Floor regarding environmentally policy.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Speaker. I want to emphasize how important the situation is

00:07in California right now across the board with our with our resources, our water

00:13supply, our timber, our mining, and our agriculture. Right now of course you're

00:18probably reading a lot of headlines about the fire situation, how much of how

00:23much of our forests and open lands are in big trouble, and you're going to hear

00:29that side of the aisle talking all day long about climate change like well I'd

00:32throw back at them. If the climate is changing what are we actually doing as

00:37people on the ground about it besides figuring out who we're going to tax or

00:41whose car we're going to take away or whose gas stove we're going to take away.

00:44What are we doing practically about making our forests more fireproof or

00:48fire safe? What are we doing about our water supply to make sure that there's

00:52more water stored so that people, agriculture, and yes even the environment

00:57can use it. What are we doing more to ensure we have a stronger electrical

01:01grid? So what is it we have happening? We see that they want to tear out a part of

01:06the electrical grid in the form of hydro hydroelectric dams in northern

01:11California as well as up in Oregon and Washington etc. It's just one after

01:16another. Hydroelectric dams provide CO2 free electricity if you want to worry

01:21about the CO2. Now CO2 only makes up 0.04 percent of our atmosphere but

01:27they're using it as a weapon to in order to force us to change our lifestyles. So

01:33let's store more water so we have it for agriculture so we have it for

01:37hydroelectric power so we have it for all the matter of things that we need

01:42water for for human use and environmental use. So let's move the ball

01:46on that. In my own district we have a project called the sites reservoir that's

01:50been talked about for 50 years. It seems to be coming close to fruition of

01:54actually getting started to be built but there's still roadblocks to be thrown up.

01:58There could still be weaponized lawsuits to try and stop the building of sites

02:02reservoir which would be one and a half million more acre feet of storage for

02:05California as well as its positive flood control benefits when you're pulling

02:09that water out of a flooded river system into that reservoir. So why can't we

02:14think ahead a little more on these issues with our infrastructure?

02:17Agriculture in California is one of the most important components of our food

02:21supply for this whole country that you can imagine. We have so much that we grow

02:25in California from the Sacramento Valley to San Joaquin Valley that many of those

02:31crops 90 to 99 percent of it are grown in California. If we don't grow it there

02:36we're gonna have to import it or have to do without. If we have to import it then

02:39it means it's going to be higher cost or it's going to be lesser quality or it

02:44will be a not not reliable constant source if they want to play trade games

02:49against us with it as well. Why don't we produce it in California? We have the

02:53water supply. Hundreds of thousands, millions of acre feet even escape to the

02:58sea each year because we're not storing it. We're not trapping it. We're not

03:03putting it into groundwater recharge which would be extremely helpful for the

03:07San Joaquin Valley especially where they've had ground the ground is

03:10actually subsided. It's sinking somewhat. They've you know pulled a lot of water

03:15out of the ground in order to do agricultural activity but that said

03:19agriculture also means groundwater recharge. If we're flooding those fields

03:24if we're irrigating those fields it percolates back down in there. Instead

03:28they take more water away and they want to away from the farmers and they want

03:31to replace it with they call it solar farms which is an insult. Why would you

03:36call that a farm? Indeed we're finding more and more that these massive solar

03:40arrays as well as windmills can actually change the climate in the area

03:45where they are. Think of the concentration. Think of the heat sink. We

03:48see that in urban areas. The urban heat sink from so much pavement, so much

03:52concrete, so many buildings. Yeah it raises the temperature. So you want to

03:56talk about temperature once again. What are you going to do to the San Joaquin

03:59Valley where their idea is to take more and more ag land out and put so-called

04:03solar farms in? We need to have our state be much more productive in keeping

04:09agriculture going, keeping the jobs going, having a domestic food supply

04:13that's reliable. And so with that comes that infrastructure. Building more water

04:17supply. Not tearing out our hydroelectric dams but actually preserve them and

04:22adding more to our electrical grid. We have the Diablo Canyon nuclear power

04:27plant that's been in place for 40 plus years. It was almost going to be

04:31decommissioned here this year and next year with the two different reactors. It

04:35bought five more years. Well we need 40 more years for that plant and we need

04:39more plants like that. We have small nuclear plants we can be building more

04:42and more around the country to keep our electric grid stable. And right now when

04:47you see the temperatures in California and a lot of the West perhaps over a

04:50hundred degrees, 105, 108, even some other areas are really high. It's gonna be

04:55really tough on our electrical grid because we don't seem to have the

04:58foresight to produce electricity. So all these things work together for

05:02affordability for families just to stay in their homes and run the air

05:05conditioner and have a stable food supply that's halfway reasonable in

05:08costs. It's a domestic food supply and one that brings jobs to our backyard and

05:13the water supply that we all need.

05:16We need all the above on this. I yield back.

Doug LaMalfa Slams Dems For Climate Change Neglect: ‘What Are We Actually Doing?’

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