Energy/Environment

Touring Upriver Dam in Spokane.

The United States is blessed with tremendous energy resources — including the greatest resource of all: The ingenuity of the free American mind.  Instead of borrowing money from China to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, we should keep those energy dollars here in America for American jobs.

We need a bold, comprehensive energy plan for the 21^st century. And the basic principle of that plan should be “more of everything.” Especially, more hydropower, and more energy research.

It is a tremendous honor to receive National Hydropower Association’s Legislator of the Year award. Hydropower affords us great opportunity for energy growth, and I look forward to continuing to support its development..We owe it to the Pacific Northwest and to the rest of the country to expand an energy source that will not only lower energy costs for the working middle class, but create thousands of new jobs.

The bipartisan Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act, which I co-authored, streamlines the permitting process for small hydropower and conduit projects. The legislation passed the House unanimously and was signed into law by the President.

By investing in American energy and reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, we can lower energy prices and retake control of our economic destiny.