Havre Daily News - Daines: Delegates Need to Work Together on Natural Resources

News Article

By Tim Leeds

U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Wednesday he is hearing many concerns about natural resource management in Montana, and that Montana's federal lawmakers need to work together and with constituents to make federal policy better.

"I think we can forge some common-ground solutions here," he said.

Daines spoke to the Havre Daily News in between a meeting with representatives of Devon Energy in Havre and a meeting in Choteau to hear ideas on how to best manage the Rocky Mountain Front.

He said several issues he has heard about will be coming up in the House committee on natural resources on which he sits, including the Keystone XL oil pipeline proposed to run through Montana en route from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.

The controversial pipeline still is awaiting approval by President Barack Obama's administration.

Daines said he heard of a new benefit of the pipeline Wednesday morning before coming to Havre. Representatives of the electric cooperative in Glasgow, NorVal, told him that supplying energy to the pipeline would help them keep costs lower and more consistent, avoiding expected sharp increases in charges over the next 10 years.

He said a common concern he has heard in his two-week Natural Resources Tour, wrapping up Friday in Billings, is changing policy on logging and lumber.

Daines said lumber mills have started hiring back workers after massive layoffs in the last 10 years, but much more needs to be done.

Logging on federal land is down 90 percent from where it was in the 1980s, while beetle-killed trees and forest fires are decimating the forests, he said.

"We need to bring better practices and policies to our federal land," he said.

Working closely with Montana's Democratic U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester to improve those policies is one of his goals, Daines added.

He said he meets with the senators for coffee with them and constituents every Wednesday, and holds a meeting with them and all of their chiefs of staff once a month.

He said the comments he has heard in the last week-and-a-half -- in which he has travelled more than 3,000 miles -- reminds him and reinforces the idea that "it's important we set aside the "R' or "D' behind our names and remember we all have "MT' behind our names."

He is gathering ideas and comments to take back to Washington, Daines said, including on Baucus' bill on managing the Rocky Mountain Front, and on Tester's bill to manage forest lands in western Montana.

He has heard comments from all sides about Tester's bill, which mandates logging on federal land, creates wilderness areas and creates recreation areas, he said.

Daines said he realizes there are many points of view on that bill and that issue, and he wants to find a middle ground.

"One of my goals is to try to drive consensus," he said.

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