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Rep. Gosar Leads Delegation Effort to Hold Hearing on Arizona Water and Power Costs

Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S (R-AZ) has led an Arizona Congressional Delegation request that the House Natural Resources Committee hold a field hearing in Arizona to examine the impact of federal actions on the price of water and energy in the state.

Congressman Gosar authored a letter, signed by Congressmen Trent Franks (AZ-2), Ben Quayle (AZ-3), David Schweikert (AZ-5), and Jeff Flake (AZ-6) to Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, and Subcommittee on Water and Power Chairman Tom McClintock:

Dear Chairmen Hastings and McClintock:

The House Natural Resources Committee has rightfully pursued policies to promote abundant water and power supplies and to responsibly utilize our country’s natural resources. We respectfully ask that you hold a field hearing on the wide array of federal barriers to job growth and resource security in the State of Arizona.  

The federal government is working against us, not with us, on these policy objectives.  Nowhere is this condition truer than in Arizona.  For example, many of our state’s electric cooperatives, public power utilities, irrigators, tribes, and local governments have expressed grave concerns about Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s “Memorandum for Power Marketing Administrators.”  The federal power program is integral to keeping electricity rates affordable and reliable for our constituents, who are the customers of these community-owned and consumer-owned utilities across our state.

Nearly one million acres of Arizona forests burned in the last year, polluting watersheds, killing or harming endangered species, and destroying wildlife habitats.  Arizona’s 2012 Fire Season is off to a busy start and is expected to again experience above-average activity.  Many federal policies continue to hamper job-creating ecological restoration initiatives.  Further, lawsuits, or the fear of litigation, have directly impacted how federal agencies handle land and resource management operations. 

The Navajo Generating Station—important infrastructure partially-owned by the Bureau of Reclamation—is in danger of being closed down due to potential federal regulations.  As you know, the plant provides 95% of the power to pump over 500 billion gallons annually of Colorado River water to Indian and non-Indian irrigation entities and municipalities through operation of the federal Central Arizona Project (CAP).  In fact, deliveries currently meet 45% of the City of Phoenix’s water needs and nearly 80% of the City of Tucson’s water demand.   Additionally, revenues from the sale of excess power generated from the plant are used to repay the federal government for Arizona's share of the project.  These revenues are also used to help pay for the costs of Indian water rights settlements within Arizona. 

These examples are just a few of the federal issues that threaten Arizona’s water security and affordable power supply.  We strongly believe a field hearing in Arizona will provide first-hand accounts that will be invaluable to the committee and our conference as we continue our fight to provide abundant water resources, clean and cheap hydroelectricity, new federal recreational areas, flood protection, and regulatory certainty. 

We urge you to hold a hearing on this situation as soon as practicable.  Thank you for your consideration of this request. 

View the letter here.