During debate on the House floor, Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) spoke in support of HR 8997, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I'm proud to support this very solid Energy and Water Development
00:07and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2025. It's a good bill. It's going to secure
00:12our nuclear triad, it's going to protect our domestic energy supplies, and it's going to
00:17pressure this Biden administration to refill our strategic petroleum reserves. And I want
00:21to thank Chairman Kohl, and especially Chairman Fleischman, as well as the committee staff
00:25for their hard work on this bill in pulling this forward to the floor. I'm particularly
00:31satisfied that this legislation includes my provision to block a rule that was established
00:36by the Department of Energy to actually weaken environmental oversight for battery electric
00:43storage systems, or BESS facilities, or BESS facilities. These BESS sites are essentially
00:51giant lithium batteries lined up side by side and stacked on top of each other in many
00:56cases and connected to the larger power grid. And they're not necessarily, Mr. Speaker,
01:01bad things. But while energy storage systems are essential for a modern power grid, especially
01:06in areas like in my district in Southern California where we have high winds and high fire risks
01:11and high loads, they also, these BESS facilities, could potentially pose dangers for communities
01:18if not properly planned, if not properly engineered and constructed, and if put in
01:22locations that pose significant harm to our communities and our environment. In a recent
01:28hearing, the San Bernardino County Fire Chief testified that if these BESS sites are not
01:33perfectly constructed, they can actually create fires that are extremely and almost impossible
01:39to extinguish. My provision simply says that the Department of Energy needs to stop trying
01:46to cut corners and to do the homework before installing these energy storage systems in
01:51our communities. Let me be clear. This isn't an anti-storage provision. It's a provision
01:56to ensure that the communities have a voice and that the government isn't running with
02:01scissors during the development of these facilities. And I can tell you, in L.A. County, they've
02:05made some very bad choices recently when it comes to these BESS facilities. You don't
02:10have to look any further than the community of Acton, right in the middle of my district,
02:15to understand the risks associated with rushing these energy storage projects. Acton is a
02:21small community, Mr. Speaker, right in the middle of the Los Angeles forest where L.A.
02:27County is forcing, effectively, this BESS facility to be constructed. Let me paint the
02:32picture of where this location is at. In their infinite wisdom, L.A. County decided to put
02:37this BESS facility smack dab on top of the most active part of the San Andreas Fault.
02:43It's right in the middle of some of the most combustible wildlands and poses a significant
02:47wildfire risk. Within a PAR 5 of this location, there's a large electrical substation that
02:54would be basically knocked out, which supplies all of the power to L.A. County, or most of
02:59the power to L.A. County, if this were to have any issues. Within a PAR 5, it's got
03:05a freeway that is the main corridor going to the high desert. It's got a railroad. It's
03:09got a reservoir, which is a drinking water for the high desert in about a third of my
03:13district. It's got high-voltage power transmission lines going overhead, so if the facility catches
03:18on fire, those will be knocked out. And it's got a Brightline West plan nearby, a new rail
03:25line as well as California's high-speed rail, right by this BESS facility in L.A. County.
03:31And in the end, the community had no input. They had no voice. The government was running
03:35with scissors, and the L.A. County officials were able to put this BESS facility in a location
03:41that, frankly, is probably the absolute worst location that they could have chosen. So again,
03:46I want to thank the chairman for this good bill overall. It does a lot of amazing things,
03:50and I especially want to make sure that I want to reiterate that these battery storage
03:55facilities are good, they're necessary, but they need to be done right, and we can't be
03:59cutting corners on these very unique technologies. And I urge my colleagues to support the overlying
04:04goal. Thank you. I yield back.