Ken Salazar

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure responsible development of the energy resources under Colorado's Roan Plateau in a manner that minimizes the adverse impacts on its unique ecological resources while maximizing the financial returns to the State of Colorado and to our country. This legislation was developed jointly with my colleagues Representative John Salazar and Representative Mark Udall, who plan to introduce the legislation today in the House. The Roan Plateau, an area of pristine wilderness in northwestern Colorado, rises 3,500 feet out of the Colorado River Valley. It boasts native cutthroat trout streams and has some of the best winter elk and mule deer habitat left in the heavily developed Piceance Basin. The Roan has long been a favorite destination for hunters and anglers. The mule deer, elk, black bear, and native trout that find habitat on top and at the base of the Roan Plateau are an economic engine all their own, drawing tourism and recreation dollars to towns like Glenwood Springs, Rifle, Silt, and Parachute. Recently the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the public lands on the Roan and the minerals beneath them, announced that it is opening these lands for energy development. Under the BLM plan, 67,000 acres of public lands on and around the Roan Plateau will be open for natural gas drilling as soon as this year. We in Colorado are blessed to be home to significant energy resources, and tapping these resources is important to sustain our Nation's energy needs and invigorate the Colorado State economy. But in its current form, the BLM plan lacks adequate protections for the Roan's land, water, and wildlife--the very things that support the outfitters, guides, hotels and restaurants in the area. And by proposing to lease all of the undeveloped public lands at once, the BLM plan would sell Colorado short. Drilling is already happening on roughly half of the plateau that is either owned or leased by the natural gas industry. Without question, western Colorado is experiencing a boom in energy development. During the decade of the 1990s, the average number of completed gas wells per year in Garfield County--the home of the Roan--was 80. The number of completed wells has climbed rapidly since 2000, setting a new high each year. In 2006, 840 new wells were completed in Garfield County. This rapid expansion of activity has created new jobs in the region, but has also stoked new conflicts between the energy values and environmental, ecological, and recreation values of these lands. The impacts of this development are being felt by landowners and outdoor enthusiasts alike. Sportsmen have watched as public hunting areas, habitat, and important watersheds have been irreparably degraded as a result of widespread development. With this level of development occurring we must ensure that the most pristine areas of the plateau that remain are protected, that oil and gas development in the region occurs with minimal disturbance, and that Colorado receives the best possible financial return on any oil and gas leases. Our legislation has three main functions that work to address these issues. First, it requires phased leasing on top of the plateau to maximize state revenues and better protect wildlife habitat and the environment. Second, it ensures protection of critical cutthroat trout watersheds and other wildlife habitat on top and around the base of the Roan Plateau. Lastly, it contains a conforming amendment to the Transfer Act to ensure that Colorado receives its fair share of leasing revenues rather than directing this money, as the Transfer Act specifies, to the Anvil Points cleanup fund, which is in surplus. The phased leasing provision requires BLM to lease less sensitive areas outside of cutthroat trout watersheds first, rather than leasing all available development areas at once. In selecting areas for leasing, BLM must take into consideration various factors designed to maximize leasing revenues and to minimize the environmental and ecological impacts of development. Phased leasing will generate higher per-lease bids from industry--and more money for the Treasury and Colorado--than the current BLM plan to lease the entire designated development areas at once. The special protection provisions of the bill expand BLM's designated ``Areas of Critical Environmental Concern,'' ACECs, to include the headwaters of Northwater Creek and the East Fork of Parachute Creek above the confluence with First Anvil Creek--both of which are critical native cutthroat trout watersheds. The bill also permits gas development activities on top of the plateau outside ACECs that are within development corridors along existing ridge-top roads on slopes not exceeding 20 percent. These measures will protect critical elk and mule deer habitat around the base of the plateau, while allowing development and recovery of the available natural gas under the Roan. In 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt told a crowd that, ``In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.'' President Roosevelt's wisdom--over a century later--is as valuable as ever to a Nation committed to protecting its land and water, but that is in dire need of affordable, domestic sources of energy. The Roan is a special place. Protecting our State's last few remaining wild spaces, maximizing oil and gas leasing revenues from these areas and supporting the communities that surround them need not be at odds. This bill will replace BLM's plan with a better, more balanced approach that will protect the most critical areas on the top of the Roan and provide the most benefit to the State of Colorado.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure responsible development of the energy resources under Colorado's Roan Plateau in a manner that minimizes the adverse impacts on its unique ecological resources while maximizing the financial returns to the State of Colorado and to our country. This legislation was developed jointly with my colleagues Representative John Salazar and Representative Mark Udall, who plan to introduce the legislation today in the House. The Roan Plateau, an area of pristine wilderness in northwestern Colorado, rises 3,500 feet out of the Colorado River Valley. It boasts native cutthroat trout streams and has some of the best winter elk and mule deer habitat left in the heavily developed Piceance Basin. The Roan has long been a favorite destination for hunters and anglers. The mule deer, elk, black bear, and native trout that find habitat on top and at the base of the Roan Plateau are an economic engine all their own, drawing tourism and recreation dollars to towns like Glenwood Springs, Rifle, Silt, and Parachute. Recently the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the public lands on the Roan and the minerals beneath them, announced that it is opening these lands for energy development. Under the BLM plan, 67,000 acres of public lands on and around the Roan Plateau will be open for natural gas drilling as soon as this year. We in Colorado are blessed to be home to significant energy resources, and tapping these resources is important to sustain our Nation's energy needs and invigorate the Colorado State economy. But in its current form, the BLM plan lacks adequate protections for the Roan's land, water, and wildlife--the very things that support the outfitters, guides, hotels and restaurants in the area. And by proposing to lease all of the undeveloped public lands at once, the BLM plan would sell Colorado short. Drilling is already happening on roughly half of the plateau that is either owned or leased by the natural gas industry. Without question, western Colorado is experiencing a boom in energy development. During the decade of the 1990s, the average number of completed gas wells per year in Garfield County--the home of the Roan--was 80. The number of completed wells has climbed rapidly since 2000, setting a new high each year. In 2006, 840 new wells were completed in Garfield County. This rapid expansion of activity has created new jobs in the region, but has also stoked new conflicts between the energy values and environmental, ecological, and recreation values of these lands. The impacts of this development are being felt by landowners and outdoor enthusiasts alike. Sportsmen have watched as public hunting areas, habitat, and important watersheds have been irreparably degraded as a result of widespread development. With this level of development occurring we must ensure that the most pristine areas of the plateau that remain are protected, that oil and gas development in the region occurs with minimal disturbance, and that Colorado receives the best possible financial return on any oil and gas leases. Our legislation has three main functions that work to address these issues. First, it requires phased leasing on top of the plateau to maximize state revenues and better protect wildlife habitat and the environment. Second, it ensures protection of critical cutthroat trout watersheds and other wildlife habitat on top and around the base of the Roan Plateau. Lastly, it contains a conforming amendment to the Transfer Act to ensure that Colorado receives its fair share of leasing revenues rather than directing this money, as the Transfer Act specifies, to the Anvil Points cleanup fund, which is in surplus. The phased leasing provision requires BLM to lease less sensitive areas outside of cutthroat trout watersheds first, rather than leasing all available development areas at once. In selecting areas for leasing, BLM must take into consideration various factors designed to maximize leasing revenues and to minimize the environmental and ecological impacts of development. Phased leasing will generate higher per-lease bids from industry--and more money for the Treasury and Colorado--than the current BLM plan to lease the entire designated development areas at once. The special protection provisions of the bill expand BLM's designated ``Areas of Critical Environmental Concern,'' ACECs, to include the headwaters of Northwater Creek and the East Fork of Parachute Creek above the confluence with First Anvil Creek--both of which are critical native cutthroat trout watersheds. The bill also permits gas development activities on top of the plateau outside ACECs that are within development corridors along existing ridge-top roads on slopes not exceeding 20 percent. These measures will protect critical elk and mule deer habitat around the base of the plateau, while allowing development and recovery of the available natural gas under the Roan. In 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt told a crowd that, ``In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.'' President Roosevelt's wisdom--over a century later--is as valuable as ever to a Nation committed to protecting its land and water, but that is in dire need of affordable, domestic sources of energy. The Roan is a special place. Protecting our State's last few remaining wild spaces, maximizing oil and gas leasing revenues from these areas and supporting the communities that surround them need not be at odds. This bill will replace BLM's plan with a better, more balanced approach that will protect the most critical areas on the top of the Roan and provide the most benefit to the State of Colorado.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for up to 5 minutes.

Mr. SALAZAR. I come to speak in regard to three firefighters killed in the State of Colorado in the last day and a half. These three firefighters are part of the legion of first responders who make sure they are keeping us safe day in and day out. In Colorado, in the last day we have had three significant fires that have broken out: one in Crowley County, one in El Paso County in Fort Carson, and a third in Garfield and Pitkin Counties in Carbondale. The fire in Crowley County, we had two volunteer firefighters who gave their lives fighting that fire. They are John Schwartz and Terry DeVore. To them, their families, we appreciate their sacrifice, serving as first responders often do, putting their lives on the line to make sure communities are protected. In the case of Gert Marais, who was fighting the fire at Fort Carson and whose plane crashed while he was fighting the fire, to his family we also send our condolences and appreciation. These are unusual fires for us in Colorado. Usually we get to fire season during the dry times of July and August, September and October. This year in particular we have had moisture that is on average about 200 percent over a normal year in all of our southern river basins, which is seemingly unprecedented. But the fires have been driven by high winds, and the damage has been significant. In Ordway in Crowley County, a rural and remote part of our State, much of the town of Ordway has been devastated; 1,100 people who live in the town had to be evacuated because of the fire. I have been in Crowley County and Ordway many times in my public life. It is one of those counties in Colorado which is part of that forgotten America. It is rural and very remote. Thousands upon thousands of acres of land within Crowley County have been dried up as the water that irrigated those fields has been taken to so-called higher economic uses of the city, the cities of Pueblo, and Colorado Springs, and the Denver metropolitan area. It is this fire that caused extensive damage to the town of Ordway and has also created the devastation. I am certain the 1,100 citizens of Ordway, as devastated as they are in the aftermath of the fire, are also very rich and powerful in spirit. With that power of spirit, they will rebuild the town and the community. I will be there, along with my colleagues, to do everything we can to help them rebuild. I appreciate the efforts of Governor Ritter and the Federal agencies that have been so responsive to the issues created by these fires in Colorado. Visit of Pope Benedict I also rise to speak concerning the Pope's visit to America. This morning, along with many of my colleagues in the Senate, I participated in greeting the Pope upon his arrival at the White House with President and Mrs. Bush. It is a momentous occasion for all of us who come from a Roman Catholic tradition to have Pope Benedict visit America. It is our hope that as he comes to Washington and then goes to New York and visits Ground Zero and also addresses the United Nations, one of the things the Pope will do is to talk about what he is here to do, and that is to talk about how it is that we are one global community. As we deal with the issues that confront our world today, whether they relate to terrorism or poverty, disease or the issue of global climate change, at the end of the day it is important to recognize that the hope and optimism of humanity is bound up in how we work together as one people. It is a message of hope and optimism. We have looked forward to his visit to America and to the inspiration that he will give to 300 million Americans, as well as the over 50 million Catholics we have in the United States. Some years ago, in 1993 and 1994, we prepared for and held World Youth Day where Pope John Paul II came to the United States and visited many of us in Colorado. He had a mass at Cherry Creek State Park which was attended by over 500,000 young Americans from throughout the United States as well as the world. It was a celebration of World Youth Day in Denver. It was characterized as one of the most peaceful gatherings of a crowd that size in the history of the State, a crowd that size, in terms of the peacefulness of it, probably in the United States. It left a legacy not only in Colorado but across the United States and the world about the hope and optimism that we see in America and in the world, so much of it through the eyes of our young people. Today, for me, as I greeted the Pope in Washington, DC, at the White House, I was reminded about the hope and optimism which is part of the legacy John Paul II left when he came to visit in Colorado now some 15 years ago. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to S. 793. The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the House amendment, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I rise today in strong support of S. 2739, a package of natural resource bills that Chairman Bingaman has assembled. The bills that are in this package have received the unanimous endorsement of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and have cleared the House. I want to thank Senator Bingaman for his leadership in the Committee and I want to thank Majority Leader Reid for bringing this package before the Senate for consideration. There are four bills in this package that I am particularly proud to support: S. 500, a bill that would form a commission to study the possible creation of the National Museum of the American Latino; S. 1116, a bill that would help make better use of the water that is produced as a byproduct of energy development; S. 752, a bill that would authorize a program to assist with endangered species recovery along the Platte River in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming; and S. 327, the Cesar Estrada Chavez Study Act, which would help preserve the legacy of one of our Nation's most important civil rights leaders. I want to spend a couple minutes talking about each of these bills, but first, Mr. President, I want to discuss the process through which we are debating these bills. This is, as my colleagues all know, a highly unusual process for debating natural resource bills. Typically, the Senate is able to take up and pass with the strong support the 100 Members in this Chamber-- most bills that pertain to national parks, forests, national museums, historic preservation, and cultural resource protections. If a bill clears the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by unanimous consent it is likely that the full Senate will clear it by unanimous consent. Why has this been the practice? Because most of the bills we pass out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee are bipartisan, noncontroversial, and easily garner the unanimous support of 100 Members. This is how Congress established the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado in 1999. It is how we passed the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act in my native San Luis Valley in 2000. It is how we established the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Kiowa County in 2005. It is how we pass bills like the Buffalo Soldiers Commemoration Act, the Eisenhower Memorial Act, and the Ojito Wilderness Act. The list goes on and on. Mr. President, on issues like health care, the economy, and Iraq, the parties do have real and substantial differences, and those differences merit serious debate here on the floor. But on how to protect our national treasures and traditions, we are usually in lock step. Unfortunately, that has not been the case this year. Instead, every single bill that leaves the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, regardless of its subject or content, has encountered an objection. Mr. President, each of us is certainly within our rights in objecting to a bill. That is a solemn right in this chamber, and it is one that ensures that when a Member has a strong, substantive objection to a bill, he or she can be heard. Unfortunately, Mr. President, I fear that the objections to these bills make it even more difficult to make progress on the issues that face our Nation. All the bills in this package have my support and the support of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but there are four bills of which I am particularly proud. The first, S. 500, would help us determine how we can more properly recognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans to our nation's history. The Commission to Study the Potential Creation of the National Museum of the American Latino Act of 2007 would do what its title suggests: it would establish a commission to study the potential creation of a national museum dedicated to the art, culture, and history of Hispanic Americans. The Commission will be tasked with studying the impact of the potential museum and the cost of construction and maintenance. It will also be tasked with developing an action plan, a fundraising plan, and a recommendation on whether to proceed with construction of the museum. The second, S. 1116, is a bill I worked on with my colleague from Colorado, Representative Mark Udall, which would help make better use of the water that is produced during energy development. Each day, more than two million gallons of useable groundwater are wasted, turned into what is known as ``produced water,'' after it is brought to the surface during oil and gas drilling or coal bed methane extraction. This water is often contaminated beyond use. The ``More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007'', cosponsored by Senators Bingaman, Domenici, and Enzi--along with the late Senator Thomas--initiates a feasibility study on recovering ``produced water.'' It also establishes a grant program to test technologies that would convert ``produced'' water to ``useable'' water. This bill will be of great value in the arid West, where we are constantly looking for ways to increase our water supplies for crop irrigation, livestock watering, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. It is deserving of swift passage. The third bill I would like to highlight is S. 752, the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program and Pathfinder Modification Authorization Act of 2007. It is a bill that Senator Ben Nelson, Senator Allard, Senator Hagel and I introduced. The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to participate in a program to help endangered species recovery along the Platte River in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. The Governors of Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming and the Department of Interior spent nine years developing the plan for this program, which they finalized in 2006. S. 752 authorizes the Secretary of Interior to carry out the Endangered Species Recovery Program in partnership with the States. Under the bill, the States and Federal Government will share costs, 50- 50, on projects that provide benefits for endangered and threatened species recovery and that help with the monitoring and research on the benefits of the program. The bill authorizes $157 million to support the federal portion of the work. Finally, Mr. President, this package includes a bill, S. 327, that would help preserve the legacy of one of our Nation's top civil rights leaders, Cesar Estrada Chavez. We all know the story of Cesar Chavez. From a family of migrant farm workers, Cesar Chavez began working in the fields at age 10. He moved from job to job across the Southwest, enduring the hardships and injustices of farm worker life. In 1952, at age 35, Chavez started working as a community activist, fighting for civil rights for all workers. Ten years later, he founded the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers of America, and led efforts to improve wages and working conditions. Chavez, through his work to improve the lives of farm workers across the country, is one of our nation's most important civil rights leaders. We must honor his memory and remember the sacrifices he made on our behalf. To that end, the Cesar Estrada Chavez Study Act would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a resource study, not later than 3 years after funds are made available, of sites associated with the life of Cesar Estrada Chavez. The study would help determine whether those sites meet the criteria for being listed on the National Register of Historic Places or possible designation as national historic landmarks. I am a proud co-sponsor of this bill and will continue to fight until it is passed. Mr. President, I want to again thank Chairman Bingaman and Majority Leader Reid for their leadership in bringing this package of lands bills to the floor and for working to overcome the obstructionism that has, unfortunately, become so common in this body. These are bipartisan, common-sense bills that will help protect our nation's natural, cultural, and historic heritage, and I urge their prompt passage.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak with regard to S. 2739, the bill we approved earlier this afternoon. First, I wish to acknowledge Chairman Bingaman and Senator Domenici for their great work in this legislation. As I worked over the last 2, 3 years on many of the bills that are included in this package of land bills we approved this afternoon, it was gratifying to see the bipartisan nature of the Energy Committee working on this legislation which is so important to our Nation. I very much agree that the process that historically has been used in the Senate where what we do is to bring these pieces of legislation which are important to our States, which are important to our Nation, through a unanimous consent procedure is the way we ought to go. Unfortunately, because of objections from a few Senators on the other side, we were not able to follow that procedure. But, at the end of the day, through the great leadership of both Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici, we were able to get that legislation through. To both of them I say thank you very much for your leadership. I also thank the staff of the Energy Committee. Bob Simon, David Brooks, all of the staff on both sides who labored very hard on the more than 60 pieces of substantive legislation that we approved here this afternoon that will now head to the President's desk for his signature. So I thank them for their great efforts with respect to this legislation. I want to speak briefly about four of the bills that were included in this legislation which are important to my State of Colorado and are important to the Nation. The first of those pieces of legislation has to do with the South Platte River and the North Platte River and a multistate compact that involves the State of Colorado and the State of Nebraska. Over the years, we have had issues between our States, Nebraska and Colorado, and the State of Wyoming as well, with respect to how we deal with the implementation of the Endangered Species Act and how we recover endangered species on the Platte River, mostly working in the State of Nebraska. After many years of negotiation and involvement by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior, the States came together and developed a recovery implementation program. That is a program which is intended to restore the habitat for the whooping crane in the State of Nebraska, with the participatory effort and obligation on the part of the State of Colorado and the State of Wyoming and the State of Nebraska to recover the whooping crane and to recover habitat and hopefully someday to be able to take that threatened and endangered species off of the list. In order for us to make progress to get there, we needed to implement this tristate agreement with the Federal Government. The legislation we passed today will help us get there, and I very much appreciate the participation of Senator Hagel and Senator Nelson from Nebraska, as well as Senator Allard, Senator Barrasso, and Senator Enzi from Wyoming on this bipartisan legislation, legislation that is very important to our States. The second legislative item I want to refer to here briefly is S. 1116, which is the Produced Water bill. This is legislation which was sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congressman Mark Udall. We pushed it through our Energy Committee because we know this is happening out there in many of our public and private lands across the West; that is, as oil and gas is being developed, there is a huge amount of water that is simply being wasted, that is being disposed of without any kind of beneficial use. For those of us who come from the arid West, who know what it is like to live in places where you only get a few inches of rainfall a year, it is important that we not waste any water whatsoever. So what this legislation will do is it will help us figure out a strategy and a plan forward on how we develop a beneficial use for the water that is being produced from oil and gas production. The next bill that was included in this package which I wanted to speak about briefly is the Latino Museum bill. That legislation had several dozen cosponsors here in the Senate, including Senator Menendez, Senator Martinez, and many others who worked on that legislation over the last several years. It is important that when we look at this legislative piece, we understand the contribution many Americans have made to this country over a long period of time. The Latino community has been here in the United States of America for a very long time. Indeed, as the case with my family, my family helped found the city of Santa Fe, NM, in 1598, now some 410 years ago. That was before Jamestown, before Plymouth Rock. You find the stories of our history across the landscape of this country from Florida, throughout the Southwest of the United States of America. And in my own native valley, you can look out from the 8,000- foot elevation of the San Luis Valley to the mountains on the east side of the valley that are named the Sangre de Christo Mountains; that is, the ``Blood of Christ Mountains.'' You can look to the west to another set of 14,000-foot peaks named after St. John the Baptist, the San Juan mountain range. Throughout America, you see the history of the Latino community etched into the landscape of our country. But it is more than that history that started out now more than four centuries ago here in the Nation, it is also the contributions Hispanics have made to this country as we have evolved from one generation to the next. It was a group of Hispanic solders who in many ways helped create this Nation through their service in George Washington's Army. It was a huge number of American soldiers who have served in every single war since the beginning of our Republic, including people like those in my family who served, and some who died, in some of the wars we have fought in this country. In World War II, my father was a staff sergeant in the Army. My mother, at the age of 19, found her way across the country from a place with no post office and no name in northern New Mexico to the War Department here in Washington, DC, where she spent 5 years contributing to that great cause of the last century which made America the power and the hope and beacon of opportunity for the entire world. There have been thousands and thousands of Americans like that who have made the ultimate sacrifice. But my mother was actually here in Washington, DC during World War II. She received a telegram that said her oldest brother, my Uncle Leandro, had been killed in the war in Europe. When we authorize a study of the Latino museum in Washington, we are saying that part of our history is to recognize that diversity that makes us a great Nation. Oftentimes I reflect on the greatness we have here in America. It is important for us to reflect on the fact that that greatness has come about through some pain but always with some promise of the future. Yes, there have been painful chapters of our history, including the very painful chapter where this country allowed for one group of people to own another group of people, simply based on the color of their skin. We lived through another 100 years after the Civil War until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, when we allowed as a function of government for there to be the separation of the races so that it was OK for there to be Black schools and Brown schools and White schools. It took Justice Warren and a unanimous Supreme Court in 1954 to say that under the 14th amendment, that kind of segregation had no room under the equal protection clause of our Constitution. When we push forward initiatives as we have today with the Latino initiative, what we are saying to America is, we are a great nation, because we are a diverse people. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said it best in a case she decided in the last few years involving diversity at the University of Michigan. She said the national security of our country depended on the military forces having diversity. She said that in an opinion that had been filed as an amicus brief by former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She also said that the strength of the Nation in terms of future participation of the United States in the global economy was very dependent on us being able to participate in that global economy, that diversity was required for us to succeed. For that proposition, she cited to a brief filed by some 50 of the Fortune 500 companies that participated in that case. The Latino museum for us is another step in the celebration of our diversity. As I look at the challenges we face ahead in this century, I think we can embrace and celebrate the diversity of our country that will make us stronger. There will be those who will say we ought to take another road and that that road ought to be the one where we allow differences to separate us, where they will agitate for using those differences among us to create discord and to bring about agents of division. I reject that view. The view I embrace is that the diversity of our country is what will make us strong, not only in the 21st century but beyond. The Latino museum legislation we passed today is one step in making that statement. I also finally want to comment on S. 327 which was also included in this legislation. It requires a study on ways in which we can celebrate and commemorate the contributions that Cesar Chavez made to the United States. Cesar Chavez was the leader of the United Farm Workers until his death a few years ago, one of the most celebrated Americans we know today and one of the architects of our civil rights movement and someone who in many ways is typified with people who have been pioneers of civil rights such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and others who have done so much to make sure we are an America in progress. It is fitting and proper that we, as a Congress, honor someone with the legacy of Cesar Chavez. I was proud to have bipartisan sponsorship of that legislation so that we can now move forward to figure out ways in which we can celebrate the legacy of this great man. I yield the floor.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 2 p.m., Monday, April 14; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for use later in the day, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 3 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; and that following morning business, the Senate resume the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 608, H.R. 1195, the highway technical corrections bill.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, at 5:30 p.m., on Monday, the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the highway technical corrections bill.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Environment and Public Works Committee be discharged of H.R. 123, an act to authorize appropriations for the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund, and that it then be referred to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. I object.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak against amendment No. 4429, which has been offered by my good friend, Senator Alexander from Tennessee. Senator Alexander's amendment would slash the wind tax credit in half and would curtail the wind energy development for the State of Colorado and for the Nation. All across America, what we see today is great enthusiasm for the possibility of renewable energy. It is driven, in my view, in a very different way, with a robust look at renewable energy as a way forward. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon coined the term ``energy independence'' after OPEC was formed. Then Jimmy Carter talked to the Nation about the importance of energy independence that we needed to embrace with the moral imperative of a war. Yet through the eighties, through the nineties, through the beginning of this century, we did not, frankly, live up to their vision or to that promise of energy independence. In fact, we went the other way. And in going the other way, what has happened is we have compromised our national security with our addiction to oil that we import from other countries to where in March of 2007 we imported 67 percent of our oil from foreign countries. We compromise our environmental security as we see what is happening around our planet with the danger of global warming and the consequences it will bring to this planet and to this generation and to generations to come. And we have lost our way forward in terms of creating economic opportunities in America because what has happened is the technology we developed in America, such as the technology from the National Renewable Lab in Golden, CO, has, in fact, been taken by other countries--Spain, Germany, and other countries--and they have developed a very strong energy renewable economy. When we talk about renewable energy, I agree very much with my colleagues on both the Democratic and Republican sides who have said we need to embrace the renewable energy future of America with an ethic that is a sustainable ethic, with the sense that we are here to do everything we possibly can, and we cannot do this by fits and starts. When we look at wind energy, it seems to me we need to come together to support the future of wind energy in America. In my State of Colorado, we are seeing a virtual revolution occurring in terms of what is happening with wind energy. In 2004, there was hardly any wind generation taking place in my State of Colorado. I remember going across the eastern plains during my campaign for the Senate and then following that time, my visit to all 64 counties in the State and talking about how renewable energy would open a whole new chapter in rural America, would help us in so many ways to address the fundamental issues of our time. Since 2004, my State of Colorado has moved to the point where we are about to produce 1,000 megawatts of electrical power a year in the State of Colorado--1,000 megawatts of electrical power--by harnessing the power of the wind. It would take much longer than 3 years to permit a coal-fired powerplant, and 1,000 megawatts represent the energy that would be generated from three coal-fired powerplants. I don't have anything against coal, as my friend from Pennsylvania knows. We need to have coal some way as part of our portfolio of energies as we move forward, but we need to embrace the renewable energies we know are now on the market and make these initiatives of renewable energy sustainable over a long period of time. Many projects are depending on our extension of the production tax credit and the investment tax credit. These tax credits are very important. I will be supporting Senator Cantwell's and Senator Ensign's amendment later on in the vote we will be having. A recent study by Navigant Consulting indicates that failing to extend the investment tax credit could result in the withdrawal of nearly $19 billion in capital investment in solar and wind. That would result in a loss of 116,000 jobs in 2009, including 10,600 jobs in the State of Colorado. Over the last several weeks, the last 2 months on the floor of the Senate, we have talked about the economic situation in which we find ourselves. We said what we have to do is stimulate the economy and do some things that make sure the economy doesn't go further in the ditch. There are some who say we are already in the ditch. Alan Greenspan said yesterday he thought we were already in a recession. We need to do what we can to make sure that ditch is not too deep so we cannot find our way out. One of those ways is making sure we are stimulating the economy in ways that work. When we talk about production tax credits and investment tax credits, that essentially will make sure we have these 116,000 jobs created in America. It is something we should very much support. Congress has looked at the PTC and the ITC in fits and starts. It was first created to expire at the end of 1999, again in 2001, and again in 2003. We need to stop those fits and starts, and we need to be more persistent than consistent with respect to these investments. Currently, the wind production tax credit has a value of 2 cents per kilowatt hour. The credit is scheduled to expire in 2008. Senator Alexander's amendment would cut the credit for wind to just 1 cent per kilowatt hour. That, in my view, is headed in the wrong direction. Senator Alexander argues that the wind energy receives special treatment and argues fossil energy has received some credit but that we should back down on the credits we are giving to wind energy. What this chart will show is that what we are doing in terms of tax incentives, as well as in research and development expenditures out of the Federal Government, is not at all skewed toward renewable energies. In fact, it is skewed to fossil fuels. You will see that in tax expenditures, in the year 2007 in billions of dollars, fossil fuel received $13.7 billion of the expenditures that we were making through the incentives we are creating for oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuels. But we were putting $13.7 billion into fossil fuels to help us with our energy independence, where we were only putting $2.8 billion into renewables. That is a stark contrast as to where we should be going if we are to get to energy independence for national security and environmental reasons. When you look at research and development, these are the figures from the Department of Energy out of a General Accounting study which was requested by Senator Alexander in 2007. We see that, in billions of dollars, the Department of Energy spent only $1.4 billion on renewables, but at the same time the Department of Energy spent $3.1 billion, three times as much, on fossil fuels, and $6.2 billion on nuclear. So when we talk about harnessing the power of the wind, the power of the Sun, the power of biofuels as we grow our way to energy independence, in my view, we need to have some more balance. We need to put more into the renewable energy future of our country. We have, as a Nation, starting over a century ago, made major investments in helping the fossil fuels industry. What this chart will show is, beginning in 1916, we created this laundry list of tax incentives for exploration of oil and gas and for the production of oil and gas and coal. Also, beginning in 1957, we made major incentives for nuclear. Yet we see the very few incentives we have instituted with respect to wind, which did not start until 1992. So this chart reflects there is a lot of catching up to do if we are to do everything we can as a Nation to harness the energy of the wind. I am hopeful, therefore, my colleagues will vote no on the Alexander amendment because the wind energy future of our Nation is very dependent on our continuing to sustain a policy over a longer period of time so we get the wind energy industry up and running in America. It is also, in my view, important we support the amendment of Senators Cantwell and Ensign, with respect to energy tax credits, because we need to make sure those do not expire, and right now they are on the verge of expiring. I would hope, as we move forward in dealing with tax incentives and other issues in the Congress, we will be able to find a way to extend them beyond the end of 2008. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the Alexander amendment, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the Cantwell-Ensign amendment. I yield the floor.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Ben Brown, a fellow in my office, be allowed the privilege of the floor for the remainder of the debate on the housing bill.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, today I am proud to introduce the National Park Centennial Fund Act, a bill that will help restore the grandeur of our national parks in preparation for the 100th birthday of the National Park System in 2016. I am pleased to introduce this bill with Senator Collins, Senator Baucus, Senator Coleman, and Senator Tester. I want to thank them for their work and for their support of this bill, which I hope we can pass this year. Nearly a century ago, following the extraordinary vision of leaders whose dreams were ahead of their time, we as Americans pledged to protect our Nation's most special lands and treasures. At places like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Gettysburg we have set aside for permanent protection those landscapes that conjure the sublime, those historic treasures that tell the American story, and those cultural sites that help define us as a people. In 2016, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park System. The centennial celebration will be an opportunity to resurrect the spirit that drove people like Enos Mills, one of the founders of Rocky Mountain National Park, to work tirelessly to protect our Nation's crown jewels for future generations. ``In years to come when I am asleep beneath the pines,'' Mills proclaimed in 1909, ``thousands of families will find rest and hope in this park.'' He was right. Thanks to the excellent work of the Park Service and its employees over the past 90 years, the 3.2 million visitors that come to Rocky Mountain National Park each year experience the same wild lands and spectacular vistas that our ancestors enjoyed. The coming of the 2016 centennial of the National Park System is an opportunity to restore the luster of our national parks and inspire future generations to protect these national treasures. Secretary Kempthorne took an important step in this direction when, in August 2006, he announced that the National Park Service will undertake the Centennial Initiative to prepare for the 100th anniversary of the Park System in 2016. As part of the Centennial Initiative, Secretary Kempthorne proposed the creation of a partnership between: the federal government; the private, philanthropic sector; and other non-federal sources. The goal of this partnership would be to increase philanthropic contributions to the parks by providing Federal matching funds for donations made by Americans for projects that improve the parks and visitor experiences. This program is called the Centennial Challenge. When Secretary Kempthorne presented this proposal to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year, I offered my strong support for the concept. However, the legislation offered by the Administration to put the Centennial Challenge into action suffered from a number of deficiencies--namely, a lack of a spending offset and an unclear delineation of the public's and Congress' role in the program. There were also concerns about the bill's effect on other Park Service accounts, friends groups, and existing philanthropic initiatives. The National Park Centennial Fund Act that we are introducing today answers many of these questions and, I believe, is a legislative package that is worthy of bipartisan support and passage. This bill takes Secretary Kempthorne's Centennial Challenge proposal from vision to reality by establishing the Centennial Challenge Fund, a matching donation fund in the federal treasury that will provide up to $100 million a year to the national parks in support of signature ``Centennial projects and programs.'' This would allow supporters of the parks to match their contributions with federal dollars to carry out a program or a project at a national park unit, provided that the project or program is approved by the Park Service and Congress. This bill provides $100 million in mandatory spending for each of the fiscal years from 2008 to 2017 to carry out special, select Centennial projects throughout the National Park System. Non-federal philanthropic participation is encouraged, but not required, for a project to be executed with Federal money from the Centennial Fund. To ensure that Congress has the opportunity to review and approve the proposed project list, the bill requires the Secretary oflnterior to submit to Congress, as part of the President's annual budget submission, a list of proposed Centennial projects. The yearly project lists are to be developed by the Secretary with input from the public and National Park Service employees. Projects must meet specific criteria set forth in the bill. All projects must be consistent with Park Service policies and adopted park planning documents and be representative of the breadth of the national park system. The bill also requires that project proposals fall into one of seven categories or ``initiatives'' defined in the bill: Education, Diversity, Supporting Park Professionals, Environmental Leadership, Natural Resource Protection, Cultural Resource Protection, and Visitor Enjoyment and Health, and Construction. No more than 30 percent of the amounts available in the fund in any fiscal year may be spent on construction activities. The National Park Centennial Fund Act also specifies that the Federal dollars made available from the Centennial Fund shall supplement and not replace annual Park Service expenditures, and that adequate permanent staffing levels must be maintained. The Secretary is required to submit a report to Congress each year detailing Centennial Fund accounting, results, and Park Service staffing levels. The National Park Centennial Fund Act bill proposes to pay for the Centennial Fund by establishing a new conservation royalty from unanticipated off-shore oil and gas revenues in the Gulf of Mexico that the Federal Government is now collecting. In 2008, off-shore oil and gas lease sales have already generated more than $4 billion in revenue above Department of Interior projections. Rather than returning all these revenues--which were generated from the depletion of a natural resource--to the Federal treasury, the National Park Centennial Fund Act reinvests up to $1 billion in the Centennial Fund and the permanent protection of our national treasures. Moreover, the bill supplements the funding from this conservation royalty with revenues that would be generated through the sale of a new postage stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park System. I want to again thank my colleagues, Senator Collins, Senator Baucus, Senator Coleman, and Senator Tester, for their support and for their work on this bill. This is an effort that is worthy of broad, bipartisan support, and it is a bill which I hope we will pass this year. Finally, I would like to note that I see another bill that I have introduced, S. 2194, as complementary to this effort. The National Park Ranger School Partnership Act, which I introduced with Senator Conrad, would provide greater opportunities for our kids to experience and learn from the tremendous resources in our national parks by establishing partnerships between NPS and local schools under the No Child Left Behind Act. The bill would also create a pilot grant program aimed at getting more school children into the national parks. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass both of these bills.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, today I am proud to introduce the National Park Centennial Fund Act, a bill that will help restore the grandeur of our national parks in preparation for the 100th birthday of the National Park System in 2016. I am pleased to introduce this bill with Senator Collins, Senator Baucus, Senator Coleman, and Senator Tester. I want to thank them for their work and for their support of this bill, which I hope we can pass this year. Nearly a century ago, following the extraordinary vision of leaders whose dreams were ahead of their time, we as Americans pledged to protect our Nation's most special lands and treasures. At places like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Gettysburg we have set aside for permanent protection those landscapes that conjure the sublime, those historic treasures that tell the American story, and those cultural sites that help define us as a people. In 2016, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park System. The centennial celebration will be an opportunity to resurrect the spirit that drove people like Enos Mills, one of the founders of Rocky Mountain National Park, to work tirelessly to protect our Nation's crown jewels for future generations. ``In years to come when I am asleep beneath the pines,'' Mills proclaimed in 1909, ``thousands of families will find rest and hope in this park.'' He was right. Thanks to the excellent work of the Park Service and its employees over the past 90 years, the 3.2 million visitors that come to Rocky Mountain National Park each year experience the same wild lands and spectacular vistas that our ancestors enjoyed. The coming of the 2016 centennial of the National Park System is an opportunity to restore the luster of our national parks and inspire future generations to protect these national treasures. Secretary Kempthorne took an important step in this direction when, in August 2006, he announced that the National Park Service will undertake the Centennial Initiative to prepare for the 100th anniversary of the Park System in 2016. As part of the Centennial Initiative, Secretary Kempthorne proposed the creation of a partnership between: the federal government; the private, philanthropic sector; and other non-federal sources. The goal of this partnership would be to increase philanthropic contributions to the parks by providing Federal matching funds for donations made by Americans for projects that improve the parks and visitor experiences. This program is called the Centennial Challenge. When Secretary Kempthorne presented this proposal to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year, I offered my strong support for the concept. However, the legislation offered by the Administration to put the Centennial Challenge into action suffered from a number of deficiencies--namely, a lack of a spending offset and an unclear delineation of the public's and Congress' role in the program. There were also concerns about the bill's effect on other Park Service accounts, friends groups, and existing philanthropic initiatives. The National Park Centennial Fund Act that we are introducing today answers many of these questions and, I believe, is a legislative package that is worthy of bipartisan support and passage. This bill takes Secretary Kempthorne's Centennial Challenge proposal from vision to reality by establishing the Centennial Challenge Fund, a matching donation fund in the federal treasury that will provide up to $100 million a year to the national parks in support of signature ``Centennial projects and programs.'' This would allow supporters of the parks to match their contributions with federal dollars to carry out a program or a project at a national park unit, provided that the project or program is approved by the Park Service and Congress. This bill provides $100 million in mandatory spending for each of the fiscal years from 2008 to 2017 to carry out special, select Centennial projects throughout the National Park System. Non-federal philanthropic participation is encouraged, but not required, for a project to be executed with Federal money from the Centennial Fund. To ensure that Congress has the opportunity to review and approve the proposed project list, the bill requires the Secretary oflnterior to submit to Congress, as part of the President's annual budget submission, a list of proposed Centennial projects. The yearly project lists are to be developed by the Secretary with input from the public and National Park Service employees. Projects must meet specific criteria set forth in the bill. All projects must be consistent with Park Service policies and adopted park planning documents and be representative of the breadth of the national park system. The bill also requires that project proposals fall into one of seven categories or ``initiatives'' defined in the bill: Education, Diversity, Supporting Park Professionals, Environmental Leadership, Natural Resource Protection, Cultural Resource Protection, and Visitor Enjoyment and Health, and Construction. No more than 30 percent of the amounts available in the fund in any fiscal year may be spent on construction activities. The National Park Centennial Fund Act also specifies that the Federal dollars made available from the Centennial Fund shall supplement and not replace annual Park Service expenditures, and that adequate permanent staffing levels must be maintained. The Secretary is required to submit a report to Congress each year detailing Centennial Fund accounting, results, and Park Service staffing levels. The National Park Centennial Fund Act bill proposes to pay for the Centennial Fund by establishing a new conservation royalty from unanticipated off-shore oil and gas revenues in the Gulf of Mexico that the Federal Government is now collecting. In 2008, off-shore oil and gas lease sales have already generated more than $4 billion in revenue above Department of Interior projections. Rather than returning all these revenues--which were generated from the depletion of a natural resource--to the Federal treasury, the National Park Centennial Fund Act reinvests up to $1 billion in the Centennial Fund and the permanent protection of our national treasures. Moreover, the bill supplements the funding from this conservation royalty with revenues that would be generated through the sale of a new postage stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park System. I want to again thank my colleagues, Senator Collins, Senator Baucus, Senator Coleman, and Senator Tester, for their support and for their work on this bill. This is an effort that is worthy of broad, bipartisan support, and it is a bill which I hope we will pass this year. Finally, I would like to note that I see another bill that I have introduced, S. 2194, as complementary to this effort. The National Park Ranger School Partnership Act, which I introduced with Senator Conrad, would provide greater opportunities for our kids to experience and learn from the tremendous resources in our national parks by establishing partnerships between NPS and local schools under the No Child Left Behind Act. The bill would also create a pilot grant program aimed at getting more school children into the national parks. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass both of these bills.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SALAZAR. I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized for such time as I may consume as in morning business.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate today to talk about the farm bill for the United States of America. As the Presiding Officer knows full well, this has been a major undertaking of this Congress for the last year. Under the leadership of Senator Harkin, this has been a major effort which actually preceded even this Congress, through the work of the last Congress, and for many of us over the last 3 years. Our efforts to put together the best farm bill in the history of the United States came to a conclusion here on December 14, 2007, where, at about 3 o'clock that afternoon, in a vote in this Chamber, there were 79 Senators, 79 Senators who cast a ``yes'' vote on this farm bill. Now, not all Senators voted that day because there were seven Senators who were absent, some of them who were on the Presidential trail. When we talked to those Senators who were on the Presidential trail and those who were not here to vote on that day, we know there were 84 Senators who would have voted yes for that farm bill. That was on December 14, 2007. December has passed, January has passed, February has passed, March has passed, April. Where are we? We are not, in my view, making the kind of progress to get us across the finish line that we have to make. So I come here today to remind us all that it is important that we finish the work on the farm bill. And, yes, I have made telephone calls to colleagues on the House side, asking them and urging them to move forward with the kind of urgency that many of us in this Chamber feel about this legislation. I want to go back and reflect a little bit with my colleagues here on the importance of this bill. When I came to the Senate in January 2005, I gave my maiden speech on the floor of the Senate, and in that speech I spoke about the forgotten America. It was about those wide dispatches of land which have had troubling economic times, that even in those days of the 1990s when the economy was doing so well all across this country, there were those places in our Nation that somehow continued to wither on the vine. In my own State of Colorado, a huge State with 64 counties, there are about 12 counties that I would say have done very well through the 1980s and the 1990s. Indeed, our population from 1980 to today has grown by some 2 million people so that we now have about 5 million people. But there are wide spaces in the State of Colorado, in approximately 50 of those 64 counties, where the population has been in decline, where Main Streets have been boarded up, where the economic struggle of people is particularly painful, whether it is the area of health care or in the area of education or in any of those facets of life that affect us all. So our opportunity to shine the spotlight on rural America really comes about once every 5 years when we get to renew the farm bill and reset the policy of the Nation with respect to agriculture and rural America. This has been our time. This has been our time to do something to address this issue of what I have called the forgotten America. When you look at this nonmetro population change by county from 2000 to 2005, you will see the great swaths of America that are outlined here in red where you see county after county, mostly in rural America, that continues to lose population. So I show this map here because I think it is important for us, to remind us that as we work here today on the housing bill, which is an important and urgent piece of legislation for the United States and for the people of America who are feeling the pain today because of the housing crisis, it is also important to remind people that there is another pain being felt across America, and that is a pain in rural America. This next poster is a typical poster of a Main Street in the State of Colorado. This is a poster from Mariano, CO, a picture of Mariano, CO, which shows what is happening in many of our communities. I am sure that in the Presiding Officer's State of Pennsylvania, in the rural parts of Pennsylvania, we can probably find communities that look very much like this on Main Street. Perhaps even in the great State of Rhode Island there may be some towns that actually look like this. We have half of Main Street essentially boarded up. You have a few pickup trucks. That is kind of how it looks. This is another example of much of what is happening. This is from Brush, CO, again out on the eastern plains, ``for sale'' signs, Main Street for sale. Rural America--rural America has a whole bunch of problems. So when we look at the 2007--now 2008--farm bill, which will set the policy of the United States of America with respect to our farming policy for the next 5 years, I think it is important to see it as a great opportunity for us to come together, to create new opportunities for the United States of America, to move us forward with energy independence and fuel security for our country and also to make sure we have food security for America. There are many opportunities that are set forth in this farm bill which we ought not to forget. One of those opportunities is set forth in title IX of the farm bill where, for the first time, for the first time we have included in there a robust package that will help us grow our way to energy independence. We are going to do that through harnessing the power of the wind, the power of the Sun. We are going to do it through harnessing the power of biomass, where we can create a new biofuels industry that will enhance our national security, get rid of our dependance on foreign oil, and make sure we start addressing the environmental security concerns of the people of America. That is an important provision of this legislation. This is a picture of one of the wind farms in my State of Colorado, where wind has become a significant part of our renewable energy portfolio for our State. I am sometimes in awe of what my State of Colorado has done in a very few short years. In 2004, there was virtually no wind generation within the State of Colorado. We were not producing any electricity or very little electricity for the consumption of the people of my State and surrounding States. In 2004, we started this renewable energy initiative. In a very short 3 years, we now have accomplished 1,000 megawatts of power being generated by the wind farms throughout the State of Colorado--1,000 megawatts of power. That is an incredible amount of power when you consider it. That is about the equivalent of what we would be generating from three coal-fired powerplants. We have begun to do that in my State. We are starting it, actually, in other States all across this great Nation where the wind blows, whether it is in North Dakota or New Mexico or Texas. We have a huge initiative going forward now with respect to grasping the reality of renewable energy to harness the power of the wind. It is not only major wind farms owned by companies or by utilities. In the farm bill, we said: We take the power of the wind and we ought to be able to make it available to homeowners, to farmers, and small businesses by including in title IX a small tax credit of $4,000 for small wind turbines that produce less than 50 kW. That is a very important part of the farm bill. In addition to harnessing the power of the wind, what we do in the farm bill is also to harness the power of our biomasses. Yes, we have done that in the past. In the 2005 Energy Policy Act, we moved forward with quintupling the renewable fuels standard. In the 2007 Energy bill, which we passed out of the Senate, we pushed that agenda significantly higher in the 2007 farm bill. This is an ethanol plant in my State of Colorado. Three years ago, there were no ethanol plants in my State. Biofuels had bypassed the State of Colorado. Because of the work of this Chamber, today there are four ethanol plants which are up and functioning, producing hundreds of millions of gallons of ethanol within my State. Ground has been broken on two additional ones. But even more importantly, what we have done in the Congress is we recognized that we will move beyond these ethanol plants into a whole new future of cellulosic ethanol that is required under the renewable fuels standard of the Energy Policy Act. In the farm bill, in title IX, which we have included in the farm bill itself, we have said that this next step on cellulosic ethanol has to be taken. We include major incentives for a cellulosic ethanol future for the country. Let me say it is more than about rural America and rural development and energy, it also is about conservation of our lands across this great country. It has been said many times that farmers and ranchers are the best stewards of our land. Perhaps they are the best environmentalists we know. That comes from the reason that at the end of the day, if you do not take care of your land and you do not take care of your water, you are not going to have the wherewithal to be able to provide for yourself and your family a living in the following years. So farmers and ranchers are conservationists, and that is why in the farm bill its conservation title has a very robust movement forward in a number of our conservation programs which are so important for our country. Here is a picture, again taken at the foothills of the great Rocky Mountains in the State of Colorado, of a project which has been founded through the Wetlands Reserve Program. Those kinds of programs are a very fundamental component of this farm bill. But it goes beyond conservation. We also, in this farm bill, need to constantly keep reminding people that 67.7, almost 68 percent of all of the money this Senate directed to be spent on the farm bill--almost 68 percent, more than two-thirds--is supposed to be going and will go to the nutrition programs. It will provide money for food stamps, it will provide money for the kinds of fruits and vegetables programs we want in our schools. It is a very important part of the farm bill. Sometimes people say: Well, the farm bill is all about rural America, the forgotten America that I was talking about. That is not true because most of the nutritional dollars that are spent under the farm bill actually go to benefit the urban cousins we have throughout this country. So let's not forget the importance of food stamps, the importance of the nutritional programs that are included in the schools. Finally, from time to time there is a disaster that strikes rural America. This is the disaster which struck the eastern part of my State and the western part of Kansas just last year, with a snow blizzard that ended up killing tens of thousands of cattle out on the eastern plains. We have not had a disaster program that has been an effective disaster program for rural America. We were able to come up with a good disaster program that was included in the farm bill here in the Senate. I am hopeful that disaster program is something we can come around on in a bipartisan fashion to support and get across the finish line. Let me conclude by saying to my colleagues we cannot afford to wait. Not passing a 2007 farm bill as a Congress is not an option. We cannot fail at this. For my time as attorney general of my State and a Member of the Senate, I have always had in my office a sign that says: No farms, no food. It is important for the people of this country to understand we have the least expensive, most secure food supply of anyone in the world today. If my friend, Kent Conrad, were here and had one of his great charts, one of the things he would point to is we pay a lot less for food today than we did during the days of the Great Depression in the 1940s and 1950s. Only about 10 percent of our disposable income actually is spent on the food we consume as opposed to 20 and 30 and 50 percent in other countries. So it is important for us to maintain that food security for the American people. I hope the House of Representatives and those in the House of Representatives who care about the food and energy security of our country will help us to get to conclusion on this very important legislation. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for a few minutes as in morning business.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning to say thank you to COL Michael Barbero. I have been in the Senate now for only a little over 3 years. During that time, I have had the great honor and privilege of traveling to Iraq and to the Middle East with Colonel Barbero on two separate occasions. He is, first of all, a great soldier. He is someone who makes us all proud for his long service to the U.S. Army. Part of his career in the U.S. Army has been to serve at Fort Carson, the home of the Mountain Division in the State of Colorado. As we traveled to the Middle East, we often would talk about Fort Carson and his experience there and the beauty of my State and the beauty of our mountains. Colonel Barbero has been a great example of service. He has always put the interests and concerns of others ahead of himself. I think in that fashion he exemplifies the selflessness that comes from the very best of the best we have in the U.S. Armed Forces. He has been a great example in the Senate as he has worked with all of us, with many of our colleagues, demonstrating the excellence and the commitment of the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces today. I also want to voice my appreciation for the great sacrifices he has made because, as he has worked not only in the Senate for the last several years, but beyond that, his family has also sacrificed a great deal to our Nation. I think about his wife Vicki and his children Mary and Michael. Mary and Michael are still young people at home. I am sure often they missed their father when he would be gone on journeys into troubled areas of the world, sometimes for more than a week at a time. So I come to the floor this morning simply to salute Colonel Barbero and to tell him thank you on behalf of the Senate for the great contribution he has made to our country and to the relationship between our legislative branch of Government--this Chamber, the Senate--and the U.S. Army. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, today I honor Albert Bell, who is retiring from the Durango Police Department following a lifelong career in law enforcement. Since moving to Colorado from Kansas nearly 27 years ago, Al has dedicated himself and his talents to protecting the communities of southwest Colorado--first as a sergeant and then as Undersheriff for the La Plata County Sherriff's Department, and, for the past 14 years, as chief of police for the Durango Police Department. He also served with me on the Police Officers Standards and Training Board and the Anti-Bullying in Schools Task Force during my tenure as attorney general of Colorado. I am honored and privileged to have worked with Al personally over the years, both as attorney general and now as a U.S. Senator. Throughout his career and our work together, Al has demonstrated strong leadership, integrity, and an unyielding commitment to public safety. These attributes have made him one of the most well-regarded law enforcement officials in our State. Al's contributions to southwest Colorado extend beyond law enforcement. He currently serves as president of the Southwest Colorado Mental Health Board of Directors, and is a member of both the La Plata Health Care Project Steering Committee and the Regional Juvenile Center Task Force. Al's involvement in these and other community organizations speaks to his generosity, selflessness, and his love for the southwest Colorado community. In short, southwest Colorado has benefitted tremendously because Al Bell chose a path of public service. He has set an example for all Americans to live by. While I am sorry to see him go, I know that he has very much earned a healthy and happy retirement. On behalf of the people of Colorado, I thank Al for his service, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.