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A backgrounder on Congressman Jeff Denham's positions on public lands / conservation issues is attached for your review. If you have questions, please let us know and we'll take care of you ASAP.
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Republican Representative Jeffrey John Denham (DOB: 7/29/67) has served California’s 10th District since 2012. (He served the 19th district from 2010-2012.) An Air Force veteran, businessman, and former state senator, Denham was defeated by Democrat Josh Harder in 2018. Denham, who has been heavily involved in water issues affecting California while in Congress, has been mentioned as a candidate to replace Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. In the 115th Congress, Denham served as Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials subcommittee chairman on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; he also sat on the Agriculture and Natural Resources committees.
Key findings:
Denham has disparaged alternative energy development and has said contradictory things about human impact on the changing climate. “It’s such an expensive form of energy,” Denham said of wind in 2012. In 2017, Denham said that he “believe(d) in climate change,” adding that he favored an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy sources. Denham, however, voted to block implementation of the methane rule, which the Sierra Club said was “vital to reducing toxic air and climate pollution by diminishing methane pollution from the oil and gas sector…He also voted in favor of a resolution to block climate action which stated than any form of price on carbon would be unacceptable.” The legislative director of the Sierra Club said that Denham “has repeatedly voted to put polluter interests above the people he represents by undermining clean air and climate action policies that would benefit everyone. In fact, it seems like he cares more about helping carbon, methane, and air pollution prosper than our own kids.” In his unsuccessful 2018 campaign, Denham wouldn’t acknowledge that climate change was partly caused by humans, instead saying climate change was “Bay Area-made” and “we shouldn’t have to pay for the Bay Area’s dirty air.”
Denham has supported efforts to expand drilling—including in the Gulf of Mexico. Denham strongly supported an effort to end a drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. “Our country will continue to struggle in its economic recovery if we do not eliminate policies that close off oil exploration, natural gas development, and timber harvesting” Denham said in 2011. In 2012, Denham discussed “oil shale and natural gas reserves that we just got to be willing to go out there and get.”
Denham is a strong supporter of the Keystone Pipeline. “The Administration's excessive regulations have continually hindered job creation in the Valley and around the nation,” Denham said. “It’s past time to build,” he added in 2014. “Building is simple common sense.” After President Obama vetoed the pipeline in 2015, Denham said, “I’m disappointed…clearly, there are vast domestic economic benefits.” “I'm pleased to see our new president so quickly reversing the previous administration's rejection of Keystone XL, which received broad bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress,” Denham said in 2017.
Denham has supported efforts to open public lands to off-road vehicles. “Do I like expanding wild-and-scenic designations? In most cases, it doesn't make sense,” Denham said in 2015. In 2016, he voted to require federal land management agencies to facilitate access for recreational activities and clearly designate “hunter access corridors” within federal lands, national monuments and wilderness areas.