[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 58 (Thursday, April 25, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H2313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS
(Mr. HUFFMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, across this country, we are seeing the
ruinous effects of climate change, from more powerful storms in the
East, to persistent drought and catastrophic wildfires in the West.
We are not powerless in the face of this threat. We know what we have
to do: slow our emissions of greenhouse gases, deploy clean energy
solutions.
But we also must do another thing. We must manage our forest lands to
be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Healthy forests
can actually help remove carbon dioxide from the environment, from the
atmosphere.
We sometimes hear about technologies that, in the future, may be able
to do this, may be able to capture and store carbon dioxide; but we
have natural infrastructure that can do it right now. And a great
example of that is from my own district in California, the Pacific
Forest Trust.
They've been working for over 20 years with landowners, as well as
local, State and Federal officials, to conserve and manage forests to
capture carbon. Their work with forest conservation easements is paying
off for wildlife, for landowners, and also for our climate.
Their Van Eck forest in Humboldt County was the first forest
emissions reduction project registered under California's climate
change law.
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