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Washington, D.C. – During a meeting of House and Senate Conferees, Alaska Congressman Don Young today shared his opening statements on S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 – a comprehensive energy and natural resources package currently being negotiated between the two Chambers.

Young, a former Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and author of numerous provisions within the House version of S. 2012, was appointed to serve on the Energy Conference by Speaker Paul Ryan in late May to negotiate the final terms of the first comprehensive energy and natural resources legislation in nearly a decade.

Congressman Young sharing his opening statement during a meeting of the House and Senate Conferees on S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 (click here to watch).

 “I have to remind my colleagues, Conferences are about give and take. And there’s a lot of taking and not much giving by certain people in this room. I have to remind people of that. I’ve been around here a little while.

“My interests in here of course are the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife and National Park Service] Alaska hunting regulations, which are illegal. My Native American Energy bill with Senator Barrasso; we hope to get that done. Alaska hydro – we’ve heard a lot about hydro – it’s important that we do this quicker and get the renewable energy that really works for a long period of time. And of course, we have the Polar Bear trophies. You may wonder what that’s doing. It’s in the House bill, the Administration supports it, and everybody supports that provision. Why it was not in the Senate bill, I don’t know. We’ll figure that out in Conference; that’s one of the things we can work on.

“I suggest respectively, we also heard about energy efficiency. I warn everybody about having the government decide what efficiency is and what will work in certain areas. We have a very efficient building industry in the state of Alaska for houses – probably the highest efficiency houses in the nation. We don’t need the federal government telling us how to do it. I do not want to see that overreach in Conference. I believe it’s wrong for the nation; I believe it’s wrong for the building industry; I believe it’s wrong for the people. Selection should be an individual choice.

“Madam Chairman there is a lot of good in the Senate bill, there is a lot of good in the House bill. Let’s see if we can’t get the good and eliminate the bad on both sides. With that we’ll have a Conference we can be proud of.”

On May 25, 2016, the House passed its own version of the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016, which included H.R 8, the North American Energy and Security and Infrastructure Act, and numerous other House-passed bills relating to energy, natural resources and public lands.  The legislation is currently being reconciled with the Senate version of the legislation, S. 2012, sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski.