[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 161 (Friday, October 7, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1034-E1035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE WORK OF THE UTAH STATE LEGISLATURE ON CLIMATE AND 
                           ENERGY INITIATIVES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN R. CURTIS

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 2022

  Mr. CURTIS. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the following Utah 
State Legislature Resolution:

 Concurrent Resolution to Work Together to Address the Climate, Public 
  Lands, and Carbon Sequestration, 2022 General Session, State of Utah

     Chief Sponsor: Keven J. Stratton
     Senate Sponsor: David P. Hinkins


                               LONG TITLE

       General Description: This resolution recognizes and 
     encourages best management practices to reduce carbon 12 
     emissions while also preserving and expanding forests and 
     other lands to improve climate outcomes.
       Highlighted Provisions: This resolution: recognizes certain 
     challenges and concerns with current land and forest 
     management practices and how those practices conflict with 
     goals to slow and reverse climate change; and encourages 
     improved land management practices, including coordination 
     with all relevant parties, to reverse trends of carbon 
     emissions with new and evolving technology, expand natural 
     carbon sequestration, and improve health, safety, and forest 
     and ecosystem vitality.
       Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah, the 
     Governor concurring therein:
       Whereas, in his January 27, 2021, Executive Order, 
     President Biden stated that ``the United States and the world 
     face a profound climate crisis'' and to deal with it he 
     pledged ``to implement a government-wide approach that 
     reduces climate pollution in every sector of the H.C.R. 1 
     economy, increases resilience to the impacts of climate 
     change, protects public health, and conserves our lands, 
     waters, and biodiversity'';
       Whereas, at the recent United Nations COP 26 climate 
     meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, President Biden announced ``a 
     new plan to conserve global forests, halt forest loss, 
     restore critical carbon sinks, and improve land management,'' 
     and committed the United States to an international 
     declaration to reverse global deforestation by protecting 
     forests and mitigating wildfire damage and restoring degraded 
     land by 2030;
       Whereas, many people are concerned that rising levels of 
     carbon dioxide (CO2) and green house gases (GHGs) resulting 
     from the continued use of fossil fuels are causing climate 
     changes that threaten human health and wellbeing through more 
     frequent extreme weather events, damage to critical 
     ecosystems, threats to food supplies, and other harms;
       Whereas, the primary approaches to slow or reduce the 
     levels of CO2 and other GHGs being pursued by climate policy 
     advocates would rapidly replace the current ``all-of-the-
     above'' energy mix with an increasingly heavy reliance on 
     renewable sources;
       Whereas, there is wide concern over some of these proposed 
     climate policies, including that the policies would increase 
     energy costs, damage the economic competitiveness of the 
     United States, and undermine national security;
       Whereas, the national debate over climate change policy is 
     becoming increasingly heated and divisive;
       Whereas, in contrast, the state of Utah has adopted an 
     ``all-of-the-above'' energy approach policy and goals as 
     Utah's strategy to ensure that energy is affordable and 
     reliable;
       Whereas, in such a policy environment, the wisest course is 
     to emphasize first adopting the most efficacious elements of 
     the various proposed responses to climate change on which 
     there is wide agreement;
       Whereas, national and international policies, agreements 
     and reports, including specific mention in the Paris Accords, 
     multiple reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental 
     Panel on Climate Change, the international ``4 per 1,000 
     Initiative'' and President Biden's proposed climate policy, 
     among others, all recognize the importance of natural systems 
     in removing and sequestering GHGs and call for these natural 
     sinks to be protected and expanded where possible;
       Whereas, forests and rangelands, including those managed by 
     the federal government in Utah and nationally, can either be 
     sinks for atmospheric carbon or emitters of CO2 and other 
     GHGs, largely depending on how they are managed;
       Whereas, for a number of reasons, federally-managed land in 
     Utah and nationally 64 that had been functioning as carbon 
     sinks are increasingly becoming emitters of CO2 and other 
     GHGs;
       Whereas, the same conditions that convert carbon sinks into 
     GHG emitters, such as wildland fire and soil erosion, also 
     create a wide range of economic, health, social, and 
     environmental problems;
       Whereas, a growing body of scientific research, practical 
     application, and demonstrated results on tens of millions of 
     acres in the United States and around the world prove that in 
     many cases degraded natural systems can be restored as 
     vitally important carbon sinks and that the sequestration 
     potential of existing sinks can be vastly increased by 
     applying proven land management practices;
       Whereas, while the importance of natural systems 
     functioning as sinks for GHGs is widely accepted, their true 
     potential is often not recognized;
       Whereas, some scientists have calculated that globally 
     applying these widely demonstrated and proven best management 
     practices to forests, rangelands, and agricultural lands 
     could sequester all of the CO2 produced by human activities 
     from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and continue 
     to sequester enough to achieve not just net zero emissions 
     but net negative emissions for decades to come;
       Whereas, this research and practical experience have also 
     shown that these same advanced and proven sequestration and 
     management techniques also simultaneously produce a cascade 
     of valuable and significant environmental and economic co-
     benefits, including greater overall ecosystem integrity and 
     productivity, increased biodiversity, improved water quantity 
     and quality, better fish and wildlife habitat, greater 
     drought resilience, reduced flooding risk, H.C.R. 1 more and 
     better forage for wildlife and livestock, sustainable timber, 
     and enhanced recreation opportunities, among others;
       Whereas, these associated co-benefits are so valuable and 
     cost effective in their own right that tens of millions of 
     acres in the United States and around the world are being 
     managed solely to generate them and not to achieve any 
     climate-related goals;
       Whereas, at a minimum, responsible land stewardship 
     requires employing the best possible practices to protect, 
     and enhance where possible, the land and resources over which 
     the steward has responsibility;
       Whereas, because some previous carbon sinks may not be 
     repairable for decades or even centuries, if at all, prudent 
     stewardship dictates putting primary emphasis on protecting 
     them from degradation to the maximum possible extent;
       Whereas, for a number of reasons, the federal government 
     has not met this minimal standard of stewardship in its 
     management of much of the public lands and resources in Utah 
     and across the country;
       Whereas, by failing in this stewardship responsibility, the 
     federal government has caused a wide range of environmental 
     and economic harm while at the same time also converting what 
     had previously been effective carbon sinks into emitters of 
     CO2 and other GHGs;
       Whereas, protecting and enhancing natural carbon sinks is 
     clearly a non-controversial win-win solution in the climate 
     change debate because it addresses the concerns about rising 
     GHG levels while at the same time largely alleviating the 
     concerns of those resistant to many of the other approaches 
     being considered to achieve this goal; Whereas, in addition 
     to helping control the rise in GHG emissions, the many co-
     benefits generated by adopting this win-win approach 
     increases resilience to projected climate

[[Page E1035]]

     change and better allows for adaptation and mitigation;
       Whereas, because of these many recognized co-benefits that 
     carbon sinks generate, fostering them should bring an 
     important measure of unity among all parties in the climate 
     policy debate since all can agree on the value of this 
     approach;
       Whereas, research is revealing significant human health 
     impacts from exposure to wildfire smoke and small particulate 
     matter, including respiratory and heart issues and an 
     increase in premature births, among others;
       Whereas, the Salt Lake City metropolitan area has had a 
     number of days in 2021 with the worst or close to the worst 
     air quality of any metropolitan area in the world, and 
     studies have found that wildland fire smoke contributes close 
     to half of the concentration of these pollutant levels in 
     western states; and
       Whereas, efforts to protect and enhance natural carbon 
     sinks are easily and rapidly scalable in Utah and nationally 
     and would provide numerous and immediate benefits:
       Now, Therefore, be it resolved that the Legislature of the 
     state of Utah, the Governor concurring therein, challenges 
     the Biden Administration and Congress to make meeting the 
     federal government's stewardship responsibility in managing 
     the federal public lands their highest priority in 
     implementing any climate policy, thereby protecting and 
     enhancing natural carbon sinks and, further, that they 
     undertake this effort while recognizing Utah's state 
     sovereignty and their statutory mandates under the Federal 
     Land Policy and Management Act and the National Forest 
     Management Act to fully coordinate and integrate these 
     activities with the relevant land management and resource 
     management plans of the state of Utah, Native American 
     tribes, and local governments.
       Be it further resolved the Legislature and the Governor 
     find that the standard of responsible federal land and 
     resources stewardship should be to achieve on federally-
     managed public lands the highest level of soil and ecosystem 
     health and productivity that is being achieved on comparable 
     land by tribal, state, local, and private managers or make a 
     public report on why the agency is unable to restore this 
     level of ecosystem health and productivity.
       Be it further resolved that the Legislature and the 
     Governor recognize that while increased funding and attention 
     is being proposed, also challenge the Biden Administration 
     and Congress to urgently initiate and fund emergency efforts 
     to expand forest and rangeland fuel reduction and other fire 
     pre-suppression activities to the maximum acreage H.C.R. 1 of 
     federal land as quickly as possible to prevent the harm and 
     damage now being caused on millions of acres annually.
       Be it further resolved that the Legislature and the 
     Governor declare that until adequate funding is provided for 
     such an emergency effort to protect and enhance natural sinks 
     on federally-managed land, no funding for such purposes 
     should be provided for similar activities in other countries 
     unless the federal government first provides a detailed 
     analysis justifying spending those funds abroad instead of 
     spending them to further improve the health and fire 
     resistance of forests and rangelands in this country.
       Be it further resolved that the Legislature and the 
     Governor find that the federal government should apply a 
     social benefits of carbon control cost-benefits funding test 
     to identify and compare the co-benefits of protecting, 
     rehabilitating, and expanding carbon sinks in natural systems 
     on federally-managed land as a mechanism to control GHGs with 
     the co-benefits that might be generated with any other 
     alternative approach and make those calculations available to 
     the public.
       Be it further resolved that the Legislature and the 
     Governor urge Congress to request that the U.S. Government 
     Accountability Office analyze the potential capabilities of 
     federal land management agencies to protect, enhance, and 
     expand carbon sinks on federally-managed land in response to 
     a maximum effort directive and estimate the annual costs of 
     doing so, and, further, request, and provide funding if 
     necessary, for several appropriate professional organizations 
     such as the National Association of State Foresters and the 
     Society for Range Management to undertake a similar analysis 
     and include any recommendations for changes in federal 
     policy, adoption of new management techniques, and any other 
     suggestions that would improve the effectiveness and 
     efficiency of such a maximum effort.
       Be it further resolved that the Legislature and the 
     Governor urge all state agencies with authority to manage 
     state-managed public lands to continue to manage them in ways 
     that increase soil carbon sequestration and to the extent 
     they can, to encourage greater soil carbon sequestration on 
     private lands.
       Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be 
     sent to the President of the United States, the Majority 
     Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United 
     States House of Representatives, the United States Secretary 
     of the Interior, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, 
     the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, the 
     United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the 
     United States Secretary of Commerce, the United States 
     Secretary of Energy, the United States Secretary of 
     Transportation, the United States Environmental Protection 
     Agency, the leader of each legislative house in each of the 
     other states, and the members of Utah's congressional 
     delegation.

                          ____________________