12.02.15

Ranking Member Grijalva on House Energy Bill Up for Debate This Afternoon: “No Excuse for This Committee’s Meager Contributions”

Washington, D.C. – As world leaders gather in Paris to negotiate a global agreement on developing clean energy sources and preventing climate change, the Republican-led House of Representatives is preparing to vote later today on amendments to H.R. 8, a partisan energy bill that does nothing to address American reliance on fossil fuels or the climate damage done by carbon emissions. The bill includes only two small measures – passed on a party-line basis earlier this year – from the Natural Resources Committee: H.R. 2295, which would make it easier to construct natural gas pipelines through national parks, and H.R. 2358, which unnecessarily allows electric utilities to cut vegetation on U.S. public lands along electricity transmission rights-of-way in the name of wildfire prevention.

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on his dissatisfaction with Chairman Rob Bishop’s (R-Utah) failure to push for additional bipartisan bills to be included in the energy package.

“It’s absurd that after a full year of negotiations on this broad energy bill, the Natural Resources Committee has only contributed two small pieces of legislation, neither of which develops our renewable energy economy or does anything to prevent climate change.

“What little has been included makes Chairman Bishop’s priorities clear. Allowing pipelines to proliferate in our national parks reinforces the American public’s suspicion that House Republicans would rather throw money at fossil fuel executives than protect our open spaces or strengthen our public lands.

“Today’s bill is another unfortunate example of how Chairman Bishop has prevented our committee from legislating meaningfully on clean energy and climate change. There’s no excuse for this Committee’s meager contributions, which compound the problem by taking us in the wrong direction. This bill makes it clear that he and his colleagues will continue to pretend climate change isn’t happening and will ignore renewable energy’s proven economic and environmental benefits for the foreseeable future. History will not look kindly on these failures.”

The House vote on final passage is expected tomorrow.

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