Creating abundant water and power supplies and job growth by restoring common sense to federal regulations : oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

Creating abundant water and power supplies and job growth by restoring common sense to federal regulations: oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

Creating abundant water and power supplies and job growth by restoring common sense to federal regulations: oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, first session, Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

Today's hearing is conducted pursuant to House Resolution 72 which directs all committees of the House to identify current and pending regulations that threaten existing jobs or impede the creation of new ones. In Southern Oregon, regulators have devastated Klamath Valley agriculture and now threaten to squander $700 million of ratepayer and taxpayer funds to destroy four hydroelectric dams capable of producing 155 megawatts of clean and cheap electricity-and to shut down operation of the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery that produces five million salmon smolt annually. Last year, this government diverted 200 billion gallons of water away from Central Valley farms in California to dump into the Pacific Ocean for "habitat restoration," destroying a quarter million acres of the most productive farmland in the nation, throwing tens of thousands of farm families into unemployment and contributing to unemployment rates in the Central Valley exceeding 40 percent in some communities.