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Floor Speech
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, this amendment requires the Government Accountability Office to study the sufficiency of the current environmental review process for offshore wind projects.
I think we can all agree that offshore energy projects, including offshore wind projects, need to be studied thoroughly before being built, and the National Environmental Policy Act helps us do that review. However, H.R. 1, the polluters over people act, guts the National Environmental Policy Act.
If I lived in a coastal community, I would be pretty nervous about how H.R. 1 makes it harder for stakeholders to weigh in on projects that might affect my community. This amendment scrutinizes the environmental review process for renewable energy development, but the underlying bill guts the review process for all offshore development.
As we have seen in the Gulf, the infrastructure needed for oil and gas drilling has decimated wetlands, and oil spills like the BP disaster close beaches and kill wildlife.
Scientists have found that seismic surveys for offshore oil exploration are far more damaging to marine mammals than surveys for offshore wind.
A couple-page GAO study on whether environmental reviews of offshore wind are strong enough doesn't make up for the cuts to those reviews in H.R. 1. A better path forward is to reject the polluters over people act and, instead, make sure Federal agencies have the tools, capacity, and resources they need to complete reviews in a timely fashion.
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), who is our leader in the Judiciary Committee.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, as we finish the amendment process under the jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Committee, let me just close by saying that the polluters over people act, H.R. 1, has one distinct and sole purpose, and that is to dismantle, weaken, and eliminate basic laws and legal protections that have been in place for over 50 years around important issues of public health and environment.
What we have heard today is rationale regarding permitting reform, rationale regarding energy independence and dominance, but the sole purpose of these concepts is dog whistles. They are dog whistles for climate denial and no action. They are dog whistles for having corporate dominance, not public interest, in charge of the most vital natural resource, and that is our people.
H.R. 1, the polluters over people act, is a basic assault on public health, public interest, and it prevents us from dealing with the reality of climate change and the need to take action now.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chair, I oppose this amendment. While I recognize the amendment's underlying goal is to make it easier to obtain a Clean Water Act permit, not all permits have the same potential impacts on water quality.
We need to take care to distinguish between those permits that can be expedited because of their minimal impact on the environment and those that need additional attention and scrutiny.
The Clean Water Act already authorizes the use of general permits to allow a more expedited process for activities in the wetlands that will cause only minimal adverse environmental effects when performed separately and will have only minimal cumulative adverse effects on the environment.
Current EPA regulations also allow the issuance of general permits for point source discharges that involve the same or substantially similar types of operations, such as construction-related activities, urban stormwater, and the western and central Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas activities.
The amendment attempts to codify existing EPA regulations on general use permits for point source discharges without the safeguard that the activities have only a minimal impact on the environment. The amendment does not prescribe how these new requirements will interact with existing general permit authority.
Conflicting standards may have the opposite effect that the Representative intends. It may restrict EPA's authority to determine which activities are eligible to use the more streamlined process of obtaining general permit coverage and those activities more appropriately reviewed under a more rigorous individual permit authority. Bogging down the EPA with layers of rules will not make obtaining a permit easier.
The amendment also expands who can apply an expired general use permit onto new projects. Under current law, current permittees who file a notice of intent to be covered under a general use permit scheduled for reissuance remain covered by the previous permit, even if there should be a lapse between expiration and reissuance.
The amendment requires the new applicant also be allowed to use an expired permit regardless of whether or not the permit is likely to be renewed. Allowing automatic expansion of permits that have not been renewed for legitimate concerns will not improve water quality.
I stand ready to work with Representative Graves or any other colleague who seeks to achieve sensible permitting reform while continuing to uphold our Nation's water quality. However, this amendment does not uphold our Nation's water quality, and that is why I will oppose it.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 225, nays 204, not voting 6, as follows: [Roll No. 182] YEAS--225 Aderholt Alford Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bean (FL) Bentz Bergman Bice Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brecheen Buchanan Buck Bucshon Burchett Burgess Burlison Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chavez-DeRemer Ciscomani Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Collins Comer Crane Crawford Crenshaw Cuellar Curtis D'Esposito Davidson De La Cruz DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duarte Duncan Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Ezell Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fleischmann Flood Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fry Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia, Mike Gimenez Golden (ME) Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez, Vicente Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Harris Harshbarger Hern Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Houchin Hudson Huizenga Hunt Issa Jackson (TX) James Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kean (NJ) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kiggans (VA) Kiley Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Lamborn Langworthy Latta LaTurner Lawler Lee (FL) Lesko Letlow Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Luna Luttrell Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McCormick McHenry Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Molinaro Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Moran Murphy Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunn (IA) Obernolte Ogles Owens Palmer Pence Perez Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Santos Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Self Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Strong Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Van Orden Wagner Walberg Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (NY) Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--204 Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Balint Barragan Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bowman Boyle (PA) Brown Brownley Budzinski Bush Caraveo Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Casar Case Casten Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clyburn Cohen Connolly Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crockett Crow Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Foushee Frankel, Lois Frost Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Garcia, Robert Goldman (NY) Gomez Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Ivey Jackson (IL) Jackson (NC) Jackson Lee Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Keating Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Krishnamoorthi Kuster Landsman Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Levin Lieu Lofgren Lynch Magaziner Manning Matsui McBath McClellan McCollum McGarvey McGovern Meeks Menendez Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Nickel Norcross Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Peltola Peters Pettersen Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Quigley Ramirez Raskin Ross Ruiz Ruppersberger Ryan Salinas Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Scholten Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Slotkin Smith (WA) Sorensen Soto Spanberger Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Swalwell Sykes Takano Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) NOT VOTING--6 Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cleaver Hoyle (OR) Kelly (IL) Lee (CA)
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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