Posted on 02/19/2010 10:58:51 PM PST by marsh2
http://republicans.resourcescommittee.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Ltr_to_Obama_Re_AntiquitiesAct_021810.pdf
Hastings, Bishop Send Letter to President Over Potential Plans to Lock-Up Millions of Acres of Western Land
Internal Document Reveals Administration Looking to Designate over a Dozen New National Monuments in the West
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 18 - A recently obtained internal document from the U.S. Department of the Interior shows the Obama Administration is covertly considering designating up to 17 new National Monuments under the Antiquities Act. In addition, it shows that the Administration is also targeting thousands of acres of private land for potential acquisition by the federal government.
The proposed designations and acquisitions would lock-up at least 13 million acres of land in 11 Western states, cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and be done without Congressional approval. It would also have huge ramifications on our nation’s energy, restricting access to immense oil, gas, and mineral deposits, as well as blocking pipelines and transmission corridors.
In response, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) and National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Ranking Member Rob Bishop (UT-01) sent a letter today to President Obama expressing strong opposition to any unilateral action by the Administration to take vast amounts of land without public input.
This internal document comes on the heels of a recent New York Times article detailing how “President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.”
“This document exposes the hidden maneuvering of the Obama Administration to potentially lock- up tremendous amounts of public and private land without public knowledge or input. This is a gross violation of the promise of transparency and open, public decision-making,” said Hastings. “The only thing this Administration isn’t trying to hide is its unwavering commitment to expanding government every chance it gets. These designations would jeopardize job creation, energy production, recreational opportunities and tax revenue for local governments. While the President may be frustrated with his inability to pass his agenda through a Democrat-controlled Congress, he should not try to score political victories through secretly-plotted unilateral executive declarations that may please some special interest groups but will harm the livelihoods of countless American families and communities across the country.”
“The Antiquities Act has long been misused and abused beyond its original intent. If Western members seem worried it is because we have been burned by Presidential designations in the past. The designation process should be submitted to an open and transparent process,” said Bishop. “If such designations were to be implemented, ranching, energy production, recreation and future tax revenue for local communities could be significantly harmed. In light of such significant implications, stakeholders, local officials and community residents deserve the opportunity to provide input and voice their opinions. Anything short of that would be completely irresponsible.”
In the letter, Hastings and Bishop ask that the public and communities from impacted areas be given ample opportunity to be heard before any restrictive designations are acted upon. They also call on the President to meet four criteria before designating new National Monuments:
Any designations must be very constrained in size and solely limited to contiguous lands already owned by the federal government.
Any designations should be limited to sites that clearly “contain historic, landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest.” This is not to be used as a backdoor way to lock up lands for the general purposes of conservation.
Private property should be excluded from any Monument designations, avoiding the designation of inholdings. Designations should be limited to areas that face clearly–articulated, imminent threats. # # # Click to view PDF to print
Contact: Jill Strait or Spencer Pederson (202) 226-2311
Nothin’ the key in the hands of the next Republican President’s hand can’t unlock.
Marxism, the opiate of the intellectual.
yitbos
For inland navigation, hydro power or flood control???
For salmon.
Here's a list...
National Monument Proclamations under the Antiquities Act
William J. Clinton
9/18/96 Grand Staircase-Escalante, UT* (Bureau of Land Management)
Plus 20 others.
THanks.
Oh, I misunderstood your question.
The dams were originally built to provide water storage. The water has been used for irrigation of crops, flood control, and river flow regulation.
So, ya mean Obama is not busy enough with “reforming” healthcare, the economy, bank bailouts, TARP, and finding a name for his dog, he’s got time to oversee another wholesale Marxist plan?
The more Land {with mining or Drilling value} that is HELD by the Government, the more that can [eventually] be sold or surrendered to China, or the U.N.
Here is 0bama trying to lock up land in the west, thwarting energy production, trampling private property rights and once again killing thousands of jobs.
Executive Order plans.
“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/us/politics/13obama.html
Glenn Beck was head of the ball on this one just this week he spoke on things about this where the government owns almost 60 percent of the state of Utah that was land grab under Clinton now Obama wants more for his progressives.
a few weeks ago Beck gave a history lesson on Theodore Roosevelt land grab under the name of - Legacy of a Conservation
http://videolink.me/flv/gb021710.html
The Great American Land Grab
http://www.progress.org/barnes6.htm
In the 80’s I bought a tape call Regional Government and Land Control by Col Arch Roberts of CO
Constitution for the Newstates of America
PREAMBLE
So that we may join in common endeavors, welcome the future in good order, and create an adequate and self-repairing government - we, the people, do establish the Newstates of America, herein provided to be ours, and do ordain this Constitution whose supreme law it shall be until the time prescribed for it shall have run.
http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/us_constitution/news.php?q=1209059328
The Klamath Basin farmers were driven out of the region by an order of Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit, who shut off irrigation water to farmers. The reason? Fish.
Sound familiar? It is happening again in the San Joaquin Valley in California.
“The dams were originally built to provide water storage. The water has been used for irrigation of crops, flood control, and river flow regulation.”
They seem to be working to create a food shortage
The dams are hydropower. Most farming is above, not immediately below, the dams or in the tributaries. In the last 100 year flood, the dams had about a 15% affect on floodwaters. The issues with removal of the dams are the impacts on the homeowners and recreational users around the reservoirs, and the potential release of toxic sediment downstream (dioxin, cyanide, arsenic, etc.) It would be the largest dam removal project in the United States.
The local people and local government do not want the dams removed. The tribes downstream want them removed and the Upper Klamath Basin irrigators sold out their “friends” in the mid-river area in order to get concessions on their water and power rates.
Mid-River has already been hit with mass shut down of lumber mills because of the northern spotted owl, a recent moratorium on suction dredge mining and salmon and water quality regulations on its agriculture. It is as though we were under seige. I began to think there was nothing more they could do to us, but there is always more. I have been fighting these battles for twenty years.
We need to ask each candidate for Pres what they would do if elected. When we find one who will misuse the Executive Order to reverse these land grabs,all the way back to Carter, there's our man (or Woman)
The Antiquities Act has some legitimate uses, such as protecting the Puebloes and cliff drawings. The misuse was locking up so much of the surrounding country. These antiquities can be protected without infringing on the Country's ability to prosper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.