[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S961-S962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 2568. A bill to provide for conservation, enhanced recreation 
opportunities, and development of renewable energy in the California 
Desert Conservation Area, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I am proud to introduce the 
California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act.
  In February of 2015, I, along with Sen. Boxer, introduced a bill 
under the same name. That bill from 2015 included a number of 
conservation and recreation provisions that the President could not 
include in his recent designation of three national monuments.
  The President's designation this past month of those new national 
monuments--Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow, and Castle Mountain--was a 
major milestone in our efforts to protect the desert. But, due to 
limitations under the Antiquities Act, the President's executive action 
left out several key parts of our desert bill from 2015. These 
remaining provisions were vital to many of the groups and organizations 
that came together to support our bill in 2015.
  I made a commitment to those groups to enact the entire bill, not 
just parts of the bill. And I intend to fulfill that promise. The 
remaining provisions included in today's legislation do the following: 
enhance recreational opportunities by establishing 142,000 acres of 
permanent Off-Highway Vehicle recreation areas; further expand 
wilderness areas in the desert, by designating five additional 
wilderness areas that cover 230,000 acres of land near Fort Irwin; 
ensure clean and free-flowing rivers, through the designation of 77 
miles of rivers as Wild and Scenic Rivers; add to our national parks, 
by expanding Death Valley National Park Wilderness by 39,000 acres and 
Joshua Tree National Park by 4,500 acres; expand National Scenic Areas, 
by adding 18,610 acres to the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area in 
Inyo County; protect important cultural resources, by requiring the 
Department of the Interior to protect petroglyphs and other cultural 
resources in San Bernardino and Imperial County; and, facilitate 
renewable energy development in a way that protects delicate habitat.
  I want to be very clear: I intend to continue to work with my 
colleagues in the Senate and House to advance this important bill and 
the wilderness protections, national park additions, recreation area 
designations and other renewable energy provisions that were not 
implemented through the Antiquities Act.
  This legislation balances the many competing uses for public lands 
across the California desert: It protects fragile ecosystems and 
significant cultural resources, provides for increased recreational 
opportunities, and encourages sensible renewable energy development. 
This current bill includes all of the carefully negotiated provisions 
from the bill I introduced in February, minus the three monuments.
  This bill reflects our attempt to achieve consensus among the 
competing uses of desert land and the many stakeholders involved, 
including environmental groups, State and local governments, the off-
road community, cattle ranchers, mining interests, the Defense 
Department, energy companies, California's public utility companies, 
and many others.
  As a result of the general public's robust participation, we have put 
together a bipartisan proposal that charts a commonsense path forward 
for the California desert. We made a commitment to these stakeholders 
to enact these commonsense solutions, and I intend to follow through on 
that promise.
  I want to highlight some of the key provisions of this legislation:
  By designating five new wilderness areas, this bill protects fragile 
desert ecosystems across 230,000 acres of wilderness near Fort Irwin. 
This includes 88,000 acres of Avawatz Mountains, 8,000-acre Great Falls 
Basin Wilderness, the 80,000-acre Soda Mountains Wilderness, and the 
32,500-acre Death Valley Wilderness.
  These proposed wilderness areas have something for everyone: Desert 
solitude; abundant hiking options and rock climbing routes; and 
horseback riding and hunting for those that wish to experience a truly 
remarkable backcountry experience.
  This bill is more than just wilderness, however. It also designates 
four new wild and scenic rivers, totaling 77 miles in length. These 
rivers and creeks are important, and rare, riparian areas in the heart 
of the arid desert. This designation will ensure that those rivers and 
creeks remain clean and free-flowing and that their immediate 
environments are preserved. These beautiful waterways are Deep Creek 
and the Whitewater River in and near the San Bernardino National 
Forest, as well as the Amargosa River and Surprise Canyon Creek near 
Death Valley National Park.
  Conserving pristine desert land such as this is most definitely in 
the interests of our country. The California desert is a very special 
place and it deserves to stay that way.
  The legislation also provides permanent protection for five existing 
Off-Highway Vehicle Areas covering approximately 142,000 acres.
  The bill also releases 126,000 acres of land from their existing 
wilderness study area designation in response to requests from local 
government and recreation users. This will allow the land to be made 
available for other purposes, including recreational off-highway 
vehicle use on designated routes. Although the President's recent 
executive action could not include these permanent protections, off-
roaders are a vital part of the coalition we put together. They deserve 
certainty about their future enjoyment of the land, just as 
conservationists now have certainty as a result of the monument 
designations. With this bill introduction, I renew my pledge to work 
closely with the off-road community.
  We must also take into account another use of the desert land: 
renewable energy. And I believe that we can accomplish the twin aims of 
honoring our commitment to conservation and fulfilling California's 
pledge to develop a clean energy portfolio. Balancing conservation, 
development and other uses is possible, we just need to come up with 
the right solutions. Thankfully, some of these compromises are already 
in place.

[[Page S962]]

  By April 2009, solar and wind companies had proposed 28 projects to 
be included in the Mojave Trails National Monument, including sites on 
former Catellus lands intended for permanent conservation. I visited 
some of those sites at the time, including one particularly beautiful 
area known as the Broadwell Valley, where thousands of acres of 
pristine lands were proposed for development. Seeing it first hand, I 
quickly came to the conclusion that those lands were simply not the 
right place for renewable energy development.
  Since then, 26 of the 28 applications have been withdrawn. Let me 
explain why this happened. First, the Energy and Interior Departments 
developed new solar energy zones. These zones allow projects to be 
developed on lands least likely to harm plant and wildlife species, and 
allow projects to be completed faster and with fewer conflicts. This is 
a smart compromise. Second, California has worked closely with Federal 
agencies to develop the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. This 
blueprint will help identify pristine lands that warrant protection and 
direct energy projects elsewhere. This is a fair balancing of 
priorities, and I think it provides a clear path forward.
  The bill I am introducing also takes additional action to help 
promote responsible renewable energy development through state land 
exchanges. There are currently about 370,000 acres of isolated parcels 
of state lands spread across the California desert. These state-owned 
lands are largely unusable, due to their location inside Federal 
national parks, wilderness, monuments, and conservation areas. The bill 
addresses this problem by requiring the Department of the Interior to 
develop and implement a plan with the state to exchange these state 
lands for other BLM or General Services Administration owned property 
in the next ten years. By swapping state land that is often surrounded 
by wilderness and national parks for other federal land, these 
exchanges will provide California with sites for renewable energy 
production, recreation or other uses.
  I strongly urge my colleagues in both the House and the Senate to 
take a hard look at this legislation. We have made great strides in the 
past twenty years to strike the right balance between desert 
conservation, recreational uses, and the development of our natural 
resources. I believe this legislation continues in that fine tradition. 
Built on a foundation of consensus and compromise, this legislation 
fulfills our promise to the next generation that they will have the 
same opportunities to indulge in the best the California desert has to 
offer.
  I am hopeful this Congress will take this legislation up and move it 
forward. It's the right thing to do.

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