House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman is knocking the Senate for dropping electric utility line protections from a forest management bill that he’s worked to negotiate with colleagues across the Capitol.
At a subcommittee hearing Thursday on preventing wildfire damage to the power grid and water supplies, the Arkansas Republican lamented that Senate sponsors of the “Fix Our Forests Act” didn’t include a provision from his previously introduced bill that would have streamlined forest thinning around utility lines.
Instead, Senate sponsors included provisions that appear to seek a similar goal through different wording.
Westerman’s provision — which he said would provide for a categorical exclusion from reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act — ought to be restored before a final version comes before lawmakers, the chair said at the hearing of the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
