June 6, 2023
Lock It Up!
- Feds Trying to Put the West Off Limits
The earth will be so much better off when there aren’t any people on it.
The thrust of federal land use regulation in the American West has for many years been to eliminate use of the land as much as possible, at the expense of prosperity, economic development, state and local tax revenues, recreation, and other important values - even the environment. The impulse goes back at least as far as UN Agenda 21, the Global Biodiversity Assessment, and the Wildlands Project in the early 1990s. Agriculture, ranching, forestry, and even recreation are being restricted in a thinly veiled attempt to seal off land to human presence.
Currently, various types of federal land lock-ups (30 x 30, national monument designations, etc.) are accelerating at a rapid pace in the name of fighting so-called ‘climate change’. You can find reporting on individual actions, but nobody is looking at the big picture and the adverse effects of the overall campaign.
Here are a few of the most recent examples of misguided federal actions and proposals:
BLM has no statutory authority for any of this and any such rule would certainly be challenged in court as a usurpation of Congress’ legislative power under the “major questions” doctrine (see more here).
The pendulum has swung way too far in the direction of environmental extremism. It’s time to look at the big picture and realize things are dangerously out of balance (koyaanisqatsi). It’s time to rebalance, giving other important values like prosperity and property rights their proper due. It’s time to stop the federal government’s insane drive to lock up the West and prevent all good and reasonable uses. It’s time to restore the role of economically and environmentally beneficial stewardship on the part of private landowners and the states.
If all of this land use regulation is being done to fight ‘climate change’, then let’s start asking John Kerry and other climate warriors exactly how much their proposed land use actions, individually and in combination, would reduce global temperatures. The sooner we see how miniscule the proposed effects would be even under their own climate models, the sooner we can get back to considering responsible, balanced, and productive land uses in a rational manner once again.
Lock It Up!
- Feds Trying to Put the West Off Limits
The earth will be so much better off when there aren’t any people on it.
The thrust of federal land use regulation in the American West has for many years been to eliminate use of the land as much as possible, at the expense of prosperity, economic development, state and local tax revenues, recreation, and other important values - even the environment. The impulse goes back at least as far as UN Agenda 21, the Global Biodiversity Assessment, and the Wildlands Project in the early 1990s. Agriculture, ranching, forestry, and even recreation are being restricted in a thinly veiled attempt to seal off land to human presence.
Currently, various types of federal land lock-ups (30 x 30, national monument designations, etc.) are accelerating at a rapid pace in the name of fighting so-called ‘climate change’. You can find reporting on individual actions, but nobody is looking at the big picture and the adverse effects of the overall campaign.
Here are a few of the most recent examples of misguided federal actions and proposals:
- A bill in Congress would convert Chiricahua National Monument into a national park.
- National monuments are being converted to national parks with increasing frequency. While monuments often impose onerous management plans the conversion to national parks even more severely restricts other beneficial uses.
- The National Park Service doesn’t have enough money to properly maintain the land it has now. Why give it more land to administer?
- Biden administration bans new oil & gas leases within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico for 20 years - as if Americans struggling to make ends meet need another increase in fuel costs!
- Federal judge in Montana orders Bureau of Land Management to consider eliminating coal mining on federal lands in the Powder River Basin - 40 percent of all coal extracted in the United States! Upward pressure on energy costs is the last thing we need.
- Climate czar John Kerry targets agriculture in fight against so-called ‘climate change’, would sever farming’s ties to fossil fuels (including natural gas-produced fertilizer) by coercion and institute other disastrous policies that led to mass protests in the Netherlands and the fall of the government in Sri Lanka. News from Sri Lanka coming soon to a grocery store near you if John Kerry gets his way - “ban on chemical fertilizer reduced agricultural yields, contributing to rising food costs.”
- Carbon capture pipeline surveyors strong-arming landowners in South Dakota
BLM has no statutory authority for any of this and any such rule would certainly be challenged in court as a usurpation of Congress’ legislative power under the “major questions” doctrine (see more here).
The pendulum has swung way too far in the direction of environmental extremism. It’s time to look at the big picture and realize things are dangerously out of balance (koyaanisqatsi). It’s time to rebalance, giving other important values like prosperity and property rights their proper due. It’s time to stop the federal government’s insane drive to lock up the West and prevent all good and reasonable uses. It’s time to restore the role of economically and environmentally beneficial stewardship on the part of private landowners and the states.
If all of this land use regulation is being done to fight ‘climate change’, then let’s start asking John Kerry and other climate warriors exactly how much their proposed land use actions, individually and in combination, would reduce global temperatures. The sooner we see how miniscule the proposed effects would be even under their own climate models, the sooner we can get back to considering responsible, balanced, and productive land uses in a rational manner once again.