[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5250]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        ELECTRIC UTILITY TRANSMISSION LINES IN NATIONAL FORESTS

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, tonight I am pleased to announce the 
Electric Reliability and Forest Protection Act of 2017, cosponsored by 
my colleague Representative Schrader of Washington.
  Thousands of miles of electric utility transmission lines run through 
our national forests, key infrastructure that literally keeps the 
lights on across the West. Unfortunately, existing Forest Service rules 
hinder effective removal of hazardous trees and safe management of 
transmission rights-of-way. In too many cases, the inability to address 
hazards in a timely fashion results in blackouts, damaged 
infrastructure, and even forest fires, something we have too much of in 
the West, as you know. This all could be prevented if electric 
utilities were allowed to remove the dangers in a timely fashion.
  This bill will reform that broken system by streamlining the process 
for utilities to receive Forest Service approval for long-term 
transmission maintenance plans, allowing them to take immediate action 
to remove hazardous trees as soon as they are identified, before they 
cause a fire.
  This is a widely supported rule by rural communities, rural electric 
cooperatives, and many others. It is a good bipartisan effort. Let's 
get it done.

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