[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 1111

  (Mr. REHBERG asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, each year there are two things that can get 
in the way of thousands of visitors seeking the picturesque vistas of 
Montana and all that it has to offer: high energy prices that make the 
trip too expensive and a blanket of smoke from out-of-control 
wildfires.
  I've introduced legislation that brings some Montana common sense to 
those problems by literally harnessing the energy of a forest fire to 
generate electricity.
  You see, nature wants to let the fires burn in order to preserve 
healthy forests, while man continues to try and put them out. When we 
interfere with nature, we wind up with overgrown forests that burn 
hotter and longer, wasting a potential renewable energy source. My bill 
restores these forests to a more natural and healthy density, while 
using the excess wood to create biomass energy.
  Join me in cosponsoring H.R. 1111 to reduce the cost of wildfires and 
the cost of energy.

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