Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Litigation Relief for Forest Management Projects Act be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, the people spoke loudly last fall. For too long, the Obama administration ignored the common sense of those who managed the lands and our natural resources. Now is the time for that power to be put back into the hands of the folks who know it best; that is, the people of Montana, not Washington, DC. And the Bureau of Land Management's Planning 2.0 rule is no different.

The resolution we are debating today, H.J. Res. 44, would block the implementation of a rule that would fundamentally change the land planning process at the BLM. It would be for the worst.

During the Obama administration's final days in office, they put through many midnight rules costing a total of $157 billion, including this rule shift which was issued on December 12, 2016, which fundamentally changes the land planning process. The rule shifts the planning and decisionmaking away from those who know the land best, away from BLM regional field offices, and back to BLM Headquarters in Washington, DC. That is the exact opposite direction that land management should be going, and that is why this rule must go also.

This rule limits the voice of our local and State governments, and it strengthens the voice of folks who are living far away from the lands that are impacted.

Montana farmers, Montana ranchers, Montana miners, the Montana electric co-ops, Montana conservation districts, and Montana county commissioners have all expressed a concern for this rule and have urged congressional action. And there can't be a more commonsense list of Montanans than that list I just mentioned. In fact, even the western Governors are concerned. As recently as February 10, 2017, our own Governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, and Governor Daugaard from South Dakota urged Congress to direct BLM to reexamine the rule. ``Governors are concerned that BLM's emphasis on landscape-scale planning may lead to a resulting emphasis on national objectives over state and local objectives.'' ``Collectively, these changes severely limit the deference Governors were previously afforded with respect to RMP development.'' That is what our Governors are saying. I am quoting our Governors from the West.

There needs to be more balance in Federal land management. For the last 8 years, we have been out of balance. Oil and natural gas development on Federal lands dropped significantly under President Obama. In fact, for natural gas, we have seen an 18-percent decrease, while oil production on private and State lands doubled, versus the same on Federal land.

Montana has nearly 2 million acres of public land that are inaccessible to the public. Our farmers and ranchers in Montana need a more balanced partnership with the Federal land managers. They deserve more input in the development of land management policies, not less. By the way, our Federal forests in Montana are in dire need of more active management.

So where do we go next? There is no disagreement that revisions need to be made. Let's take this rule back to the drawing board and do it right. Let's work with our new Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, a Montanan, and President Trump to restore more western commonsense to land management.

I urge my colleagues to support H.J. Res. 44.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess until 2:15 p.m. and that the time during the recess be charged equally to both sides on the joint resolution.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 7; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; further, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of H.J. Res. 44; finally, that there be 8 hours of debate remaining on the resolution, equally divided in the usual form.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize 17-year- old Charles Edward Gray for his service to his community. Charles is a member of the Montana Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 214, out of Helena, MT.

On November 16, 2016, Charles was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout at his Eagle board review. Charles' Eagle Scout Service Project involved the planning, building, and installation of three wheelchair ramps at the YMCA Camp Child where children and families grow, learn new skills, and have fun in Montana's outdoors. He made the ramps out of treated lumber and composite planks and installed them at the camp's main lodge and in the girls' and boys' respective shower houses. The installation of these ramps will provide access to those with disabilities for many years to come, making Camp Child a more inclusive place.

Charles is a shining example of what it means to be a local servant leader and is using his skills to better his own community. Charles, thank you for rising to the challenge of serving Montana. I look forward to seeing what great things await your future.

Mr. President, this week, I have the distinct honor of recognizing Ty Lantis, a distinguished Montana craftsman with deep roots along the Yellowstone Valley. Ty grew up not too far from where the Powder River joins the Yellowstone River. During his adolescent years, Ty's family operated a saw mill south of Terry. He grew up building barns, garages, sheds, and many other structures. It is no surprise that Ty learned to make good use of his own talents and Montana's abudance of trees in order to become a successful homebuilder.

Shortly after graduating from Terry High School in Prairie County, Ty moved west along the Yellowstone Valley and started building homes in the Billings area. He helped build his first home when he was 19 years old. After a few more years of honing his craft, Ty teamed up with Greg Schmidt, and they launched their own company in 2003. Ty's Montana work ethic helped him to discover, develop, and deploy his talents in a way that literally helped to build a better community. In recent years, his company's craftsmanship has been honored in the Billings Parade of Homes, selected as the ``Builder of the Year'' in Billings, and recognized by the Yellowstone Valley People's Choice Award for homebuilding. In 2013, Ty's company built the house for the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway, with the proceeds of this effort going to benefit children's medical research. The following year Ty served as the president of the Home Builders Association in Billings.

Despite the positive recognition from the community and from others in his industry, Ty remains a humble man who doesn't seek the attention that comes with a job well done. Ty prefers to go about his business and do quality work, but ultimately the quality of Ty's work speaks for itself. Today is my chance to say a simple thank you to Ty for the work he has done and will continue to do to build a Montana that is a treasure to all of us.

Mr. President, Montana is the fifth largest producer of hydropower in the Nation, with 23 hydroelectric dams contributing one- third of all electricity production in Montana. The Gibson Dam project near Augusta, Montana will provide fifty to one hundred years of stable tax revenue for the state and local counties, reduce carbon emissions, create good-paying jobs, and will provide clean, reliable electricity to Montana. This bill would reinstate and provide a six-year extension of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license, allowing Montana to continue to be a leader in clean, hydropower electricity.

I thank Senators Tester and Risch for joining me on introducing this bill and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, hydropower is a critical hcomponent of an all of the above energy portfolio that provides a reliable and affordable source of electricity for hard-working Montana families. Clark Canyon Dam hydropower project near Dillon, MT will power over 1,000 homes annually in the region, create good-paying jobs, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and produce hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue for Montana. This bill would reinstate and provide a 3- year contract extension of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license, allowing Montana to continue to be a leader in clean, hydropower electricity.

I thank Senators Tester, Risch and Crapo for joining me on introducing this bill, and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, as a fifth-generation Montanan and having spent 18 years in the private sector, I know how important it is to receive your fair share in any deal. However, the Office of Natural Resources Revenue Consolidated Federal oil and gas and Federal and Indian coal valuation reform rule does not protect the taxpayers' fair share of mineral royalties as finalized. The rule as finalized creates high uncertainty and, at worst, could cause many energy operators across the country to shut-in what is already very capital-intensive production, placing our Nation's energy and infrastructure security and good-paying energy jobs at risk. The rule could leave the taxpayer at a net loss in royalties. This resolution would halt implementation of the final ONRR valuation rule, a rule whose implementation is already postponed due to litigation, allowing the States and producers to work with the Department of the Interior to reform valuation in a common- sense way.

I thank Senators Hatch and Kennedy for joining me on introducing this resolution, and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, Montana is the fifth largest producer of hydropower in the Nation, with 23 hydroelectric dams contributing one- third of all electricity production in Montana. The Gibson Dam project near Augusta, Montana will provide fifty to one hundred years of stable tax revenue for the state and local counties, reduce carbon emissions, create good-paying jobs, and will provide clean, reliable electricity to Montana. This bill would reinstate and provide a six-year extension of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license, allowing Montana to continue to be a leader in clean, hydropower electricity.

I thank Senators Tester and Risch for joining me on introducing this bill and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, hydropower is a critical hcomponent of an all of the above energy portfolio that provides a reliable and affordable source of electricity for hard-working Montana families. Clark Canyon Dam hydropower project near Dillon, MT will power over 1,000 homes annually in the region, create good-paying jobs, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and produce hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue for Montana. This bill would reinstate and provide a 3- year contract extension of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license, allowing Montana to continue to be a leader in clean, hydropower electricity.

I thank Senators Tester, Risch and Crapo for joining me on introducing this bill, and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, as a fifth-generation Montanan and having spent 18 years in the private sector, I know how important it is to receive your fair share in any deal. However, the Office of Natural Resources Revenue Consolidated Federal oil and gas and Federal and Indian coal valuation reform rule does not protect the taxpayers' fair share of mineral royalties as finalized. The rule as finalized creates high uncertainty and, at worst, could cause many energy operators across the country to shut-in what is already very capital-intensive production, placing our Nation's energy and infrastructure security and good-paying energy jobs at risk. The rule could leave the taxpayer at a net loss in royalties. This resolution would halt implementation of the final ONRR valuation rule, a rule whose implementation is already postponed due to litigation, allowing the States and producers to work with the Department of the Interior to reform valuation in a common- sense way.

I thank Senators Hatch and Kennedy for joining me on introducing this resolution, and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, what a historic day for Montana. As a fellow Montanan, as a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, I look forward to working with Ryan Zinke in his new role as the Secretary of the Interior.

Serving at the helm of the Department of the Interior, I know he will be a strong advocate for our public lands. He will uphold the Federal trust responsibility to Indian tribes, and he will help unleash American energy and will strengthen our water infrastructure.

I have heard all week some friends on the other side of the aisle speak against my good friend from Montana, Ryan Zinke. I can tell you, I am perplexed. They are concerned that Ryan Zinke may not uphold the important roles of the Department of Interior--and that is to protect the public interests in land and mineral management--that he will take shortcuts to extract minerals. Let me tell you what Ryan Zinke will do, and I have known Ryan Zinke for 38 years. He will finally restore balance to the use and management of Federal land.

Do you know that in Montana we have more recoverable coal than any State in the United States? Yet the Obama administration had planned to block our ability, Montana's ability, to develop these resources. A moratorium is not a responsible policy. It is reckless. It is misguided, leaving the States and the tribes to be reliant on mineral royalties, to lose out on these revenues, and lose out on the good- paying jobs that coal supports. Ryan Zinke will take a fresh look at our coal programs and see how we can access these untapped resources in an environmentally responsible way.

Let me remind my colleagues that Ryan Zinke was born and raised in Montana. It is a State where we like to say we get to work where we also like to play. He will restore that balance to the Department so Montanans can gain better access to our public lands.

He will also ensure our public lands work for those who live closest to them, and that means our States and our tribes. Ryan is a Montanan. He grew up in America's public lands. He grew up in the shadows of Glacier National Park. I grew up in the shadows of Yellowstone National Park. He knows we must strike this balance between conservation and responsible energy development, and he understands better than anybody I know that one-size-fits-all policies of Washington, DC, never work for real America.

I look forward to voting for my friend, my colleague, a Navy SEAL for 23 years, and our next Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke.

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I will vote against confirming Representative Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior, and I would like to take this opportunity to explain why. To put the matter succinctly, Representative Zinke--if he is confirmed--will be charged with implementing the Trump administration's ``energy independence plan,'' which includes maximizing energy production on Federal lands, including the outer continental shelf,

OCS. I oppose oil and gas drilling off the coast of Maryland and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. There is too little to gain and too much to lose.

Last November, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM, wisely did not include any parcels in the Atlantic in the 2017 to 2022 plan to lease offshore land the Federal Government controls. In December, then- President Obama used his authority under section 12(a) of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 to withdraw unleased OCS lands from future lease sales, too.

This makes sense. According to BOEM, the entire Atlantic OCS, from Maine all the way to Florida, has 1.15 billion barrels of ``undiscovered technically recoverable'' oil and 12.80 trillion cubic feet of ``undiscovered technically recoverable'' natural gas. These sums sound large, but let's put them in context. The Gulf of Mexico OCS has more than 40 times as much oil and 10 times as much natural gas.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, recently determined that the midland basin of the Wolfcamp Shale area in the Permian Basin has 20 billion barrels of oil and the natural gas equivalent of another 1.6 billion barrels. The oilfield stretches over 118 miles from Lubbock to Midland. It is the largest ``continuous oil'' discovery in the United States, according to the USGS, three times larger than the assessment of the oil in the mammoth Bakken formation in North Dakota.

It doesn't make any sense to jeopardize the marine life and the fishing and tourism industries along the Maryland coast and Chesapeake Bay when there is so much more oil and gas in other parts of the country.

Deepwater Horizon was a state-of-the-art rig, but it failed, causing the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. Eleven crewman were killed. An oil spill entering the Chesapeake Bay would be a disaster.

An even bigger threat to Maryland and other coastal States is climate change and rising sea levels. We need to accelerate our transition from fossil fuels, not our dependence on them. Two years ago, Oceana concluded that modest levels of offshore wind development over the next 20 years could produce about twice the amount of energy along coastal Atlantic States as offshore drillings and create more than 1.5 times the number of jobs.

There is no provision in the 1953 law that permits President Trump to reverse the Obama administration's section 12(a) OCS withdrawals, but he is determined to try. When Representative Zinke was first asked about lifting the moratoria, he responded, ``If I am confirmed, I will work to implement President-elect Trump's policy.''

That is the problem right there.

I appreciate Representative Zinke's honorable service to our country, both in uniform as a Navy SEAL and as an elected official in the Montana State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. He has called himself a ``Theodore Roosevelt conservationist'' and supports a permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

It is possible Representative Zinke will try to resist the Republicans' zeal for transferring ownership of precious public lands from the Federal Government, although he supported a House rule change at the beginning of this Congress to make it easier. Representative Zinke is an avid sportsman who appears to appreciate the unique role the Federal Government has in managing these resources for multiple uses--not just energy production--and preserving them for future generations.

While these are all positive factors, I am troubled that Representative Zinke has received a 3 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters. He has vacillated on the issue of climate change: in 2010, he was one of nearly 1,200 State legislators who signed a letter to President Obama and Congress calling for ``comprehensive clean energy jobs and climate change legislation.'' Since then, however, he has repeatedly expressed doubt about anthropogenic climate change. In an October 2014 debate, Representative Zinke stated: ``it's not a hoax, but it's not proven science either.'' During his confirmation hearing, Representative Zinke said that humans ``influence'' climate change, but did not acknowledge the scientific consensus that human activity is a dominant cause of climate change. He also supports using the Congressional Review Act to overturn rules agencies have spent months and even years to develop.

For all of these reasons, but particularly out of concern for the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland's beautiful shoreline and coastal communities, I will vote against confirming Representive Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.

I yield back the time on both sides.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, back in 1979, there was a junior from Bozeman High School and another junior from Whitefish High School, both headed to Dillon, MT, as Boys State delegates. The keynote speaker that year was a newly elected U.S. Senator named Max Baucus. Who knew that 38 years later the kid from Bozeman would serve as a U.S. Senator and the kid from Whitefish would be our next Secretary of the Interior.

Congratulations to Ryan Zinke, our new Secretary of the Interior, who was confirmed with very strong bipartisan support. He is the first Montanan to serve in a President's Cabinet since our statehood in 1889.

Ryan, it is truly an honor to be one of the very first to call you Secretary Zinke. On behalf of the people of Montana and our country, well done, sir.

I yield back my time.