At a House Natural Resources Subcommittee Hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) spoke about how environmental lawyers and organizations needlessly impede developments and make profits off of unnecessary National Environmental Policy Act litigation.
00:03The chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. McClintock, for five minutes.
00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:08It's been pointed out that everything in our lives that makes them possible, let alone comfortable,
00:13everything in this room is either mined or it's grown.
00:17There's no other way to produce it.
00:20And yet NEPA strikes at the very heart of this fundamental and foundational activity that supports human population.
00:27Now, the ranking member posed the question, who benefits from NEPA reform?
00:33Mr. Hergut, let me put that question to you.
00:36Who would benefit from NEPA reform?
00:39Everybody.
00:40In particular, those projects that were funded from the IRA that are trying to beat the timeline.
00:45On an order of magnitude of five to one, right now the capital investment is in non-fossil fuel projects.
00:51The idea that permitting is supported and championed by Republicans and not Democrats has always perplexed me.
00:58Mr. Bowles, what are your thoughts?
01:00Who benefits from NEPA reform?
01:04Those that would benefit from NEPA reform would be the general public, the general taxpayers.
01:10To, pardon?
01:13Essentially, everyone who uses anything that is mined or grown.
01:19Am I correct?
01:21Correct.
01:21Mr. Hergut, let me put the opposite question to you.
01:24Who benefits from the status quo?
01:26Nobody wins under the status quo.
01:28Nobody.
01:29Oh, I disagree with you completely on that.
01:31I think there's an entire industry of litigants and environmental charlatans who are making out like bandits under our current process.
01:43Am I missing something?
01:45No, you're absolutely not.
01:46In fact, if I was going into a career now, I would be an engineer and environmental consultant.
01:51Because now with environmental reviews that have grown by a 400% page number, even though there might be 150 pages, there's another 2,000 of appendices.
02:00With modeling that hasn't even really existed yet, with AI, with hyperintensive 3D, seismic studies that aren't even required by law, that are now being done for overbuild.
02:09That is a great career to be in because we don't see that reducing any time soon.
02:14Mr. Bowles, who do you think is benefiting from the status quo?
02:17That would be hard to answer to go through the minutiae of all the approval process.
02:29There's much to be done or can be done to streamline the process so that all benefit.
02:37Right now, I think it's the people who charge by the hour to review the permit.
02:43And how much do they charge by the hour?
02:45I've seen some environmental attorneys are being awarded $750 an hour out of taxpayer funds to produce and litigate all of this stuff.
02:57I couldn't speak to that.
02:59But if that's the case, I may be in the wrong industry.
03:01You know, I represent the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley of California.
03:06So I spent a great deal of my time on this committee over the years dealing with fire and water issues.
03:13And what constantly comes back to me is that they all draw their problems from NEPA.
03:21Our water projects have been brought to a complete halt.
03:24The example I like to use is the Sugar Pine Reservoir, a little reservoir that serves a tiny community in Placer County.
03:30They needed to install a spillway gate to increase the water capacity of the Sugar Pine Reservoir.
03:37$2 million for that spillway gate.
03:39That's a heavy lift for that little community, but within reach.
03:43But on top of that, they then had to budget $9 million for environmental studies and environmental mitigations,
03:50which made that $2 million project an $11 million boondoggle.
03:55Graham Kent, who runs Alert Tahoe, they placed the early warning cameras throughout the Sierra to spot fires
04:03so that they can be put out before they spread and protect the forest environment.
04:08He said that the single greatest impediment he has to placing those cameras to protect our forest environment
04:14is the National Environmental Policy Act.
04:17This committee, for years, has documented damage done by NEPA to forest management,
04:22adding millions of dollars of costs, literally years of average delay in forest thinning projects.
04:33The damage that has been done is absolutely incredible.
04:38Since these laws were enacted to protect the forest environment,
04:41we've seen an 80% decline in timber harvested off of the federal lands,
04:46and a concomitant increase in acres destroyed by fire.
04:50Randy Moore, the chief of the Forest Service under Biden, sat right there and admitted to this committee
04:55that in just the last 10 years, we have lost 27% of our national forest to catastrophic fire
05:03because these laws have caused them to become catastrophically, morbidly overgrown
05:09because we can no longer practice the forest management projects
05:13that had preserved these forests for a century
05:17when we allowed the Forest Service to actually do so.
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