[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HYDROELECTRIC DAMS ARE BEING DEMOLISHED AND REMOVED

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I rise to highlight a great injustice 
happening to constituents of mine in Siskiyou County, California. 
Against their wishes and interests, the hydroelectric dams on the 
Klamath River are in line to be demolished and removed.
  These removals will have a very negative effect on the economy for 
the residents of Siskiyou County as much of their tax base relies on 
those dams and the power and energy they produce. It will devalue their 
property. The hydroelectric power--everyone wants green power--carbon-
free power will be eliminated and have to be found some other way.
  These property owners are going to be hurt drastically by this, but 
they are supposed to be compensated by what is called the Klamath 
Mitigation Fund. It seems that the parent agency of this fund, the 
Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a shell corporation created to take 
over the ownership of the dams and have no liability, has used 
extremely subjective criteria when evaluating which property owners 
will get compensation, which won't even be close to the amount that 
they lose in their water wells and their property values as the 
lakefront will no longer be a lake from the Copco Reservoir.
  They should really be compensated for this, but on top of that, we 
really shouldn't be tearing out dams when we already have a shortage of 
electric power, especially green hydroelectric power that renews every 
time it rains.

                          ____________________