Free Republic

The federal government’s decision to ban energy development across a wide swath of Colorado and eastern Utah to protect the Gunnison sage grouse habitat has raised concerns the action would inflict economic damage. Although the Obama administration was not expected to make its decision as to whether the bird warrants the endangered listing until November, the Bureau of Land Management’s decision this week effectively puts an oil, gas and coal moratorium on 400,000 acres – roughly 90 acres per bird. The final decision was “pushed back until after the election, because when people understand the impact on jobs, people get...

Decision would cut off ranchers' lifeline . A Western Slope federal parks official’s decision to limit access to Monument Road has touched off angry reactions from residents who depend on the route for their livelihoods. With little public input from Glade Park ranching community residents and without consulting with the Board of Commissioners in Mesa County, National Park Service (NPS) Director at the Colorado National Monument Lisa Eckert recently announced that vehicles containing “hazardous” cargo would be banned from using the route they have used for decades. Monument Road adjoins to Glade Park just a few miles inside the boundaries...

Another New Mexico county has joined a lawsuit to fight the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species. Lea County in southeastern New Mexico joined three other counties in the state last week in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ... U.S. Rep., Steve Pearce, R-N.M., .. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to cater to environmental groups and disregard science will devastate New Mexico’s way of life,” he said. “New Mexicans will pay the price in lost jobs, industry, ranching and oil and gas production.”

Federal authorities have issued a moratorium blocking oil, gas and coal leasing on 800,000 acres of public land in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah that is habitat for the imperiled Gunnison sage grouse. ... restrictive measures that will impact jobs and economic development

Members of the Small Business Committee in the House of Representatives urged the Environmental Protection Agency to go back to the drawing board on a proposed rule aimed at clarifying bodies of water that fall under the Clean Water Act. In March, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed a rule to define what “waters of the United States” fall under federal jurisdiction. The rule would include smaller bodies of water including streams, riverbanks, wetlands and floodplains that may have access to larger bodies of water. Republican lawmakers have opposed the rule since its inception, saying the...

The Small Business Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), today conducted a hearing about how small businesses would be affected by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) and United States Army Corps of Engineers' proposed rule to expand the Clean Water Act. Last week, Graves and Members of the Committee wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, who oversees the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to urge withdrawal of the pending rule. Among the witnesses' and Members' concerns, the EPA and Corps of Engineers did not adequately assess the impact of...

President Obama repeatedly assures us that this will be his “year of action.” (snip).... Yet not a word has been heard of late about a truly transformative Obama executive action, his rule on “affirmatively furthering fair housing” (AFFH). That rule will push Americans into living how and where the federal government wants. It promises to gut the ability of suburbs to set their own zoning codes. It will press future population growth into tiny, densely-packed high-rise zones around public transportation, urbanizing suburbs and Manhattanizing cities. You won’t see a more ambitious Obama administration initiative than this. Yet Obama never discusses...

I wrote here and here about the Obama administration’s proposed rule on “affirmatively furthering fair housing” (AFFH), an attempt to dictate how we shall live. In essence, President Obama seeks to use the power of the national government to create communities of a certain kind, each having what the federal government deems an appropriate mix of economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. The proposed AFFH rule, issued last July, was expected to be finalized by the end of last year. But the year ended with no further action. 2014 was supposed to be the year Obama’s “year of action” — the...

The White House unveiled its semiannual regulatory agenda Friday, detailing its plans for thousands of rules in the pipeline at agencies across the federal government. The release is the fourth consecutive time that the Obama administration has issued its regulatory roadmap on the eve of a major federal holiday, as many Americans depart for long weekends and there is typically less media coverage. ... the June deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal of regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions remains in place... as well as a host of unfinished regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act.

In the great dispute over utilization of our Federal lands in the West, the attempt is frequently made to end run the arguments over how best to manage those lands by asserting the Federal government has no capacity to own the lands. The argument goes that since the Constitution is a delegation of enumerated powers, if there is no provision therein for ownership of land, the Federal government must lack standing to be a legitimate owner. This is not an idle question. It is said to have given Jefferson great pause prior to deciding to make the Louisiana Purchase. However,...

We now know how much Sen. Mark Udall was willing to sell Colorado out for- $15 million (give or take). The eco-extremist Tom Steyer is hoping to have a $100 million dollars to spend in just seven races this election cycle. That means if Steyer distributes his hoped for funds evenly, it only took less than $15 million dollars for Udall to choose a San Francisco eco-extremist’s wishes over what is best for Colorado ... Opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is nothing but an extremist issue pushed by those on the margins of the Democratic Party. The chance to...

Gov’t, locals want to fend off a new Bundy-type clash. New Mexico ranchers are plenty mad over the U.S. Forest Service’s refusal to open a gate blocking their cattle from reaching water ... still standing are the metal fences and locked gates along the banks of the Agua Chiquita, put up by the Forest Service to keep local cattle out. ... Ranchers point out that the fence has been opened for years every spring to allow the cattle access to the creek, which is also used by elk, deer and feral wild hogs.

<p>Land Grab: The Bureau of Land Management plans a Bundy-like seizure of New Mexico land for a national monument that will restrict Border Patrol access and provide an open corridor for drug and human traffickers.</p> <p>In August 2002, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Ranger Kris Eggle was killed in the line of duty. Allegedly the killers were drug smugglers crossing through the Arizona park, which shares a border with Mexico. Since Eggle's death, Organ Pipe has been called the most dangerous park in America.</p>

The Met Council, as it's known here, was founded in the 1960s to coordinate regional infrastructure—in essence, to make sure that sewers and roads meet up. Over the years, its power to allocate funds and control planning has expanded. Now, under Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton—who appointed all 17 current members—the council intends to play Sim City with residents' lives. Thrive MSP 2040 is part of a nationwide movement called "regionalism." Regional planning of infrastructure is important, of course. But regionalism, as an ideology, is about shifting power away from local elected officials and re-engineering society on behalf of "equity" and...

President Obama on Wednesday will designate nearly half a million acres in New Mexico as a national monument, the latest in a series of executive actions intended to improve environmental protections of federal lands. The president will sign a proclamation establishing the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument, the largest such designation of his presidency, during a ceremony at the Department of the Interior, the White House said Monday. It will be the 11th time the president has established a national monument during his term, and the largest designation in terms of land mass during his presidency.By contrast, former President...

The German Ministry of Environment has falsified the conclusions of a UN climate change report in the German-language version released last week, in an attempt to hide the fact that the country's 'green policies' are useless. The ministry’s four-page summary of the report contains outright contradictions and falsifications of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations, apparently made to hide UN criticism of the way the German government has turned emissions-trading into a cash cow for futile renewable energy projects. Die Welt said on Sunday that parts of the thousands of pages-long English-language report which the ministry found embarrassing were...

The United Nations Environment Program aims to dramatically increase its role in running the world according to nebulous environmental principles, according to a strategic plan that will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly this fall. The principal objective of the plan is to “catalyze a transition” to a radical new global green economy, based on “low-carbon, low-emission, resource-efficient and equitable development”—a theme that will dominate the opening of the General Assembly in September, and culminate in yet another U.N.-sponsored summit of world leaders a year later, to endorse what the organization calls its “post-2015 development agenda.”

In what some are calling a replay of the standoff with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, a New Mexico county board agreed Monday to instruct the sheriff to remove the Forest Service gates blocking thirsty cattle from reaching water, setting up a clash with federal agents over state water rights and endangered species. The Otero County Commission voted 2-0, with one commissioner absent, to “immediately take steps to remove or open gates that are unlawfully denying citizens access to their private property rights.” Ranchers became alarmed earlier this year when Forest Service officials refused to open gates allowing cattle in the...

Forest Service says it's mouse habitatThe Obama administration’s crackdown on Western land use has sparked a furor over the Forest Service’s decision to fence off a creek used by thirsty cattle in drought-stricken Otero County, New Mexico. The Otero County Commission is scheduled to meet Monday to discuss whether to order the sheriff to open the gates against the wishes of Forest Service officials, who have argued that the fence is needed to protect the Agua Chiquita riparian area and habitat for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. Otero County Sheriff Benny House said he worries that the increasingly tense...

Militiamen and woman camping on Cliven Bundy’s cattle ranch are packing up and heading to Utah where another protest against the Bureau of Land Management will happen Saturday. Ryan Payne, a Montana resident who had been staying at the ranch for a month, said he drove eight hours to arrive in the eastern Utah town this morning. Three militia members from the ranch and a handful of people from a group called Citizens Action Network came to Utah, too, he said. ... At Recapture Canyon, federal officials aren’t planning to send armed federal agents to the Utah protest like they...