Congressman Heck's Statement Regarding the Hoover Power Allocation Act

Statement

Today, Congressman Heck made the following statement before the House Natural Resources Committee regarding HR 470, the Hoover Power Allocation Act of 2011.

"Chairman McClintock and Ranking Member Napolitano: thank you for allowing me to sit with the Water and Power Subcommittee today to discuss H.R. 470, the Hoover Power Allocation Act. As you know, this issue is very important to my home state of Nevada and the more than 29 million residents across Nevada, Arizona, and California that benefit from Hoover power.

"Hoover Dam is located in my district, and Hoover power has been critical to Southern Nevada's economy, businesses, and consumers. The power is clean and affordable, but today we are taking an important step toward making it stable. That is why the Hoover Power Allocation Act, HR 470, is the first piece of legislation I introduced when I came to Congress in January, 2011.

"The Hoover power contracts are due to expire in 2017. HR 470 would authorize the distribution of electricity from Hoover Dam for the next 50 years, and create a new resource pool to make Hoover power available to Indian tribes and other customers who could not access this power in the past.

"Extending Nevada's access to low cost, clean hydro power though the enactment of HR 470 is key to Nevada's economic recovery, because it will help create certainty over future electricity prices. This is exactly what our economy needs right now in order to get people back to work.

"HR 470 was developed as a consensus bi-partisan plan to ensure the continued availability of and reliability of Hoover power to the citizens of Nevada, California and Arizona.

"Hoover contractors who participated in developing this plan have invested more than $1.3 billion to construct, operate and maintain Hoover Dam in the past. They agreed to contribute five percent of their post-2017 Hoover power allocations to form a 100 megawatt resource pool that will be made available to customers such as tribes, irrigation districts and rural cooperatives that were not eligible to apply for allocations under prior laws.

"HR 470 provides that this resource pool will be allocated by a federal-state partnership involving the Western Area Power Administration, and the states of Nevada, California and Arizona. Additionally, it requires the current and new Hoover contractors to pay Hoover Dam's future costs.

"Again, this legislation is essential to the millions of consumers who have invested in this renewable source of energy over the past 75 years because it will continue to provide them with Hoover power for the next 50 years, as well as allows new customers to benefit from this clean, low-cost energy."

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