Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I would like to thank the chairman for his assistance and leadership in bringing this bill forward today.
This legislation before us, as Chairman Whitfield stated, is pretty simple. It will allow FERC the permissive authority to allow several communities in my district to operate two very small hydroelectric dams as municipal power sources. The Upper and Lower Collinsville dams have been dormant along Connecticut's Farmington River since the 1960s. The licenses that were fairly recently previously issued by FERC to operate both small dams are currently inactive. This legislation would allow FERC the opportunity to reinstate them and transfer them to the town of Canton, Connecticut, for operation.
These two small dams are already a beloved and long-standing symbol of the Farmington Valley's rich history. Today, however, we can help make them a symbol of the valley's future as well--retrofitting them to provide clean energy to power thousands of homes and businesses.
This legislation was the product of a sustained and collaborative process with State and local stakeholders, FERC, and river protection organizations. The bill provides for an additional comment period on any FERC licensing action, as well as on the licenses' environmental provisions--ensuring that public input is respected and the river's health is protected.
While we work to enact policies that will accelerate our transition to energy independence, we shouldn't neglect these smaller projects that can begin that process right here and now, and this bill represents that kind of opportunity.
This isn't the first time we've considered this bill in this Chamber. Identical legislation passed the House by voice vote on June 16, 2010. However, the Senate didn't take up the bill that year. As such, I'm hopeful we can muster the same bipartisan spirit today and again pass this noncontroversial energy legislation.
Again, I'd like to thank Chairman Whitfield, as well as Chairman Upton and Ranking Members Waxman and Rush and their staffs, for helping bring this legislation to the floor today. We do this institution credit with this kind of bipartisan legislation. Again to the chairman, I appreciate it, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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