[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 8403-8404]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 1111

  (Mr. REHBERG asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, each year there are two things that can get 
in the way of thousands of visitors seeking the picturesque vistas of 
Montana and all that it has to offer: high energy prices that make the 
trip too expensive and a blanket of smoke from out-of-control 
wildfires.
  I've introduced legislation that brings some Montana common sense to 
those problems by literally harnessing the energy of a forest fire to 
generate electricity.
  You see, nature wants to let the fires burn in order to preserve 
healthy forests, while man continues to try and

[[Page 8404]]

put them out. When we interfere with nature, we wind up with overgrown 
forests that burn hotter and longer, wasting a potential renewable 
energy source. My bill restores these forests to a more natural and 
healthy density, while using the excess wood to create biomass energy.
  Join me in cosponsoring H.R. 1111 to reduce the cost of wildfires and 
the cost of energy.

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