[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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