As the former Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus and a Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, I am acutely familiar with the challenges facing the West. President Biden and his agency minions stifled energy production on public lands, locked-up massive amounts of our land through executive fiat, attempted to seize our water, issued an onslaught of new regulations that killed energy jobs, and implemented a backwards strategy for managing our nation's forests that failed the West and placed our communities at risk.
Developing our nation’s energy sources and increasing access to public lands creates jobs, stimulates our economy and reduces America’s dependence on volatile foreign markets. I support an all-of-the-above energy approach that utilizes all domestic energy sources including copper, coal, oil and natural gas, as well as renewables. I strongly believe our nation must pursue alternative energy sources. To that end, I have introduced the bipartisan Public Lands Renewable Energy Development Act, legislation that streamlines the permitting process for wind, solar and geothermal energy projects on public lands, does not require federal subsidies, and creates a revenue source to assist local governments in their efforts to deliver critical services.
Our country will be dependent on oil and natural gas for many years to come so we must ensure a safe but reliable domestic energy industry within our borders. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration had an unnatural fixation with destroying these industries, killing jobs and driving up energy prices for consumers. I have supported legislation that lifted the crude oil export ban, reversed the administration's effective moratorium on new offshore drilling, and increased American energy production.
For those of us in the West, state water laws and the rights they protect are paramount to our economy, our environment and our way of life. Westerners suffer from drought on a constant basis, which is why we invested in water storage and delivery projects that supply water and hydropower in dry times. Attempted water grabs by federal agencies during the Obama and Biden Administration's are atrocious. Whether it is Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), the Ground Water Service Directive, or the ski area water rights permitting conditions, radical leftists attempted an all-out assault to take control of precious water resources that were traditionally been managed by states and private ownership. To combat this, I have introduced and supported a number of legislative efforts aimed at protecting our vital water supplies.
Less than 17% of the land in Arizona is private land. This creates a significant burden for local governments in Arizona as they miss out on substantial tax revenues that typically fund essential services like roads and education. I support full-funding for programs like PILT and SCAAP until a period in time when our lands are returned to the states and private ownership.
I firmly believe Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District can be a model for energy-driven economy. Rural Arizona is rich with natural resources and contains diverse climates that are conducive to all forms of energy generation, including traditional fossil fuels, hydro-electric and solar. The federal government needs to stay out of the way, continue to remove regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to development and generation, and let Arizona businesses put Arizonans to work. If America wants to further reduce its energy dependence on volatile foreign sources, we must utilize our own resources right here in America.
