At Hearing, Vice RM Kamlager-Dove Praises Interior Secretary Haaland for Bold Climate Action, Calls Out GOP Inaction
WASHINGTON – At today’s full committee hearing, Examining the President's FY 2025 Budget Request for the Department of the Interior, featuring testimony from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, House Natural Resources Committee Vice Ranking Member Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) delivered the opening statement below.
Vice Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove highlighted several newly finalized and widely celebrated rules from the Interior Department, including the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule, a rule to strengthen financial assurance requirements for offshore drilling, a rule implementing long overdue fiscal reforms for onshore oil and gas leasing on public lands, and a rule to boost clean energy development on public lands.
Vice Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove Opening Statement (as delivered)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And a warm welcome to you, Secretary Haaland. I know that you served on this auspicious committee before you became Secretary. I also know that Ranking Member Grijalva is disappointed that he can’t be here to welcome you himself, but I think I speak on behalf of all my colleagues in saying that we are glad he’s taking the time to fully recover.
Madam Secretary, you are here today as we’ve had an unusually warm week here in DC — and this is coming from someone from Los Angeles. I can’t help but think of it as a subtle forewarning for the summer that lies ahead. Last year, we had the hottest summer on record, and many experts think there’s a good chance we’ll break that record again this time. But even if we only come close, it doesn’t change the fact that our oceans – the planet’s proverbial canary in the coal mine – are hotter than they have ever been in recorded history, and not by a small margin.
The climate crisis is clearly here, and it is not shy. It is making its presence known in nearly every aspect of our lives.
In fact, I think the only place where you can potentially forget that we’re in the midst of the most existential crisis of our time may be in this very hearing room, where my Republican colleagues have yet to bring up a single bill that meaningfully addresses the climate crisis. Not a single one.
But gratefully, House Republicans are not the sole proprietors of our U.S. governing body.
We are deeply fortunate to have the leadership of President Biden and Secretary Haaland, which is, shall we say, a bit more rooted in the reality that we’re facing.
When President Biden took office, he made a pledge to close the book on the climate denialism of the previous administration and restore the United States’ climate leadership both here and abroad.
And he — with your help, of course, Madam Secretary — has done just that. In fact, the Biden administration has accomplished more on climate than any other administration in history.
Capitalizing on the historic investments in climate and clean energy that Democrats passed through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration is deploying clean energy across the country, which has garnered billions in private sector investment and created over 270,000 good-paying jobs with ribbon-cutting ceremonies across the country that Republicans attend as well as Democrats.
At the Interior Department specifically, Secretary Haaland has overseen the recent release of several new rules that represent the bold action we need to transform the management of our public lands for a cleaner energy future.
The Bureau of Land Management’s new Public Lands Rule, for example, finally puts conservation on equal footing with other uses of our public lands, like oil and gas drilling, grazing, and timber.
Other newly finalized rules put long overdue fiscal reforms in place to make sure American taxpayers are finally getting a fairer return when Big Oil drills on our public lands and waters.
Another rule builds on the success of the Biden administration, which has already surpassed its goal of permitting 25 gigawatts of renewable energy by boosting more solar and wind energy development on our public lands.
Together, these new rules are transforming our energy economy status quo from one that has enabled the fossil fuel industry’s desecration of our public lands, nearby communities, and global climate to one that is safer, cleaner, more sustainable, and more just.
This is the kind of leadership the vast majority of Americans who want to see us do more on climate are asking for.
But, of course, it’s decidedly not the kind of leadership that polluters want.
We’ve seen them here, week after week, at the invitation of my Republican colleagues, pining and longing for the days of the previous administration, which rolled back more than 100 environmental rules, so they could turn a bigger, quicker, and dirtier profit — all at the expense of the American people.
So, I want to thank you again, Secretary Haaland. Because, while it’s clear that my colleagues across the aisle are all too willing to do the bidding of their favorite polluter pals, you have shown, in no uncertain terms, that our public lands and waters are no longer a breeding ground for corporate polluter greed.
If industry wants to do business here, they will do it safely, they will do it responsibly, they will listen to nearby communities and tribes, and they will clean up their mess.
This is the kind of leadership that will build a cleaner, safer, more affordable energy future with good-paying jobs.
That will protect our beautiful public lands and special places for generations to come.
And that will listen to the millions of Americans who have been overburdened by pollution for too long.
This is what puts the American people first – your leadership.
So, thank you again for being here, Madam Secretary. We look forward to your continued leadership.
I yield back.
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