[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 20, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONSERVATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. DENNIS A. CARDOZA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 19, 2012

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2578) to 
     amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act related to a segment of 
     the Lower Merced River in California, and for other purposes:

  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer my reserved support for 
the legislation before us today.
  This bill, like so many others that we vote on, is far from perfect. 
I have reservations about the continued expansion of Administrative 
authority to waive laws that we enact here in Congress and I have 
reservations about continuing to expose some of the most wild and 
pristine areas of our country to development. However, I will support 
this bill because of its positive impacts for the people I was sent 
here to represent.
  As many of you are aware, water is the lifeblood of the San Joaquin 
Valley, the most productive agricultural region in the world. Since I 
entered Congress, I have made it a priority to increase water supply 
reliability for both the San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento-San 
Joaquin Bay Delta. Title I of this bill helps to achieve that purpose.
  It achieves this purpose in a very simple way, by allowing for the 
consideration of a 10-foot increase in the spillway of an existing dam. 
This raise in the spillway will allow for critical year water supply 
increases of 15,000 acre-feet and will generate an additional 10,000 
Mega-Watt Hours per year of clean, renewable energy, all at no cost to 
the taxpayer. And importantly, the project still has to meet 
environmental standards. This is a common sense approach to solve a 
problem incrementally, and one that I liked so much that I carried the 
bill in previous Congresses.
  I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of this 
legislation.

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