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Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) led a letter to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler and Director Haoxiang Zhu, seeking information on a proposed rule change to permit the listing of Natural Asset Companies (NACs) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Treasurer Oaks opposes SEC proposal to allow for the creation of a new type of company designed to lock up private and public lands Proposal could cause significant harm to rural economies by removing land from productive use SALT LAKE CITY – December 11, 2023 – Utah Treasurer Marlo M. Oaks opposes a proposal under consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would allow for the creation and listing of a new type of company called a Natural Asset Company (NAC) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The proposal poses a significant risk to rural economies by...

Our freedom to roam is under assault from a plan to close everything off and make us ask permission before we enjoy it.. There is a plan underway to close the great open spaces of the American West to you, me, our children, and our children’s children. The federal government — which owns most of this land — is determined to move from a “use and let use” system of accessing Western public lands to a permission-based system that will mean reservations, permits, and closures. Just last month, the Bureau of Land Management issued a final decision to close 317...

The Biden administration has repeatedly prioritized policies critics argue are politicized environmental efforts which will make conservation and recreational activities on public lands more difficult. Rules coming down from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make land unavailable for hunting, fishing and even hiking, outdoorsmen argue. "It really seems to show to me the lack of consideration and thought that is being put in from bureaucrats from D.C. making decisions about how public lands, in the West predominantly, are being managed," Sarah Montalbano, an education policy analyst at the Alaska Policy Forum told...

The House Committee on Natural Resources held a legislative hearing on June 15 on HR 3397, sponsored by Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, to require the director of the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw the proposed conservation rule. In her prepared testimony, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told the committee that nearly 98% of BLM surface lands in South Dakota are grazed by permittees; her state hosts 76 actively producing oil and gas leases that cover 36,762 acres; and the acres managed by the BLM provide recreation opportunities. Noem said the proposed rule overemphasizes conservation rather than the economic needs...

While the bureau put more days on the public comment calendar, the administration still has announced no plans to hold additional meetings. After outcry from Western constituencies and their representatives in Congress, the Bureau of Land Management has extended the public comment period on its proposed public lands rule that threatens to upend those Americans’ way of life. The new rule proposed in March establishes a framework for “conservation leases” elevated over other uses such as mining, grazing, and gas development. The agency guidelines, which were created without a congressional vote, would implement a radical departure from the “multiple use...

The new BLM rule introducing so-called conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s vehicle for locking up federal property. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to fundamentally reshape how public lands are managed without congressional approval. In March, the agency unveiled a sweeping proposal to establish a framework for “conservation leases” that places a newfound priority on preservation. The new Public Lands Rule presents a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” Congress outlined for the agency in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). New Rules Are a ‘Game Changer’.. FLPMA requires federal lands...

Joe Biden has made much use of executive orders, sometimes to make changes that would not be adopted by Congress. For instance, among his many agenda points that he's pursued simply by writing down what he wants, he's worked to redefine the word "sex" in the nation's legacy nondiscrimination laws to include "gender identity" and such. Essentially, his agenda has argued that members of Congress, when they adopted a ban on sex discrimination decades ago, to protect women, they were proclaiming that transgenders must be treated as the sex they choose to represent themselves as being. Now Biden is working...

I recently caught up with Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR), the current House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member. If Republicans retake the House in 2022, he’s expected to take the gavel from current chair Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). Naturally, the avid angler phoned in from the 2021 Bassmaster Classic in Houston, TX, and said the event was a nice change of pace from D.C. “When I was a kid, I thought that was what my calling in life was: I was going to be a professional bass fisherman,” the lone registered forester in Congress recounted in an interview for Townhall.com. During...

A frequent slogan heard in the outdoor community is “keep public lands public.” The catchy #KeepItPublic and #PublicLandOwner hashtags accompanying this mantra are heavily populated on social media. Over the last few years, public lands advocacy has gone mainstream. Seizing upon this momentum, outdoor retailer Patagonia, for example, publicly waged war on former President Trump—accusing him of being a despoiler of natural resources.But where are these vocal advocates today when public lands access is actually under attack? (Crickets.)Public lands belong to us. And efforts by the Biden administration to curb access—under the guise of health restrictions or to incrementally ban...

The US House of Representatives has passed a historic public lands preservation bill that pledges to protect nearly 3m acres of federal lands in Colorado, California, Washington and Arizona. The act combines various bills that languished without Senate approval during the Trump administration. Key provisions include permanently banning new uranium mining on land surrounding the Grand Canyon, giving wilderness designation to 1.5m acres of federal land, and preserving 1,000 river miles by adding them to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.... ...The bill, called the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act, has strong support from the Biden administration, in...

Bill Clinton’s land management rules and other liberal policies paved the way for future debilitating wildfires ... Zybach warned of potential disastrous wildfires shortly after Clinton signed a slate of rules in the mid-1990s that drastically reduced logging and road creation on federal lands. ... Shortly before leaving office in 2001, Clinton limited the ability of the United States Forest Service to thin out a dense thicket of foliage and downed trees on federal land... created a ticking time bomb ... “If you don’t start managing these forests, then they are going to start burning up. Thirty years later, they...

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on Saturday at the American Conservative Union’s 2020 CPAC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, that President Donald Trump has made it a priority to give Americans access to federal lands for both pleasure and business. In keeping with that goal, Bernhardt said that his agency is committed to making sure that 245 million acres in the western United States be “specifically designated to be managed for multiple use.” “We’ve expanded by 1.4 million acres this last year as opportunities for hunting and fishing on public lands and in forests, but more importantly we have ensured the...

House Democrats introduced sweeping climate legislation Tuesday that would halt fossil fuel production on public lands for at least a year as the nation prepares to drastically cut climate-warming pollution from its own land holdings. The bill from the House Natural Resources Committee requires the Department of the Interior to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions on public lands by 2040. “The Trump administration is handing out drilling and coal mining leases like candy, and no thought is ever given by this administration to the climate change impacts,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) a sponsor of the bill as well as...

Privatizing Public Lands Doesn't Mean Building Shopping Centers 07/18/2019Gor Mkrtchian Protected public lands in the United States — including national forests, national parks, and similar areas — cover nearly 500,000 square miles, or 14 percent of the land area of the United States. The existence of these government-controlled lands gives the federal government immense power over much of the United States, and in some US states, the federal government controls a majorityof the land area. Thanks to the popularity of some public lands, known for their natural beauty, federal control of so much land nonetheless remains popular, and the idea of privatizing...

Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt ordered Thursday that federal land managers consider public access when selling or trading public land. “This order will help ensure that the Bureau of Land Management considers public access to public lands,” Bernhardt said in a statement. “It requires that before the BLM exchanges or disposes of any land, they must first consider what impact the disposal or exchange of land will have on public access. The Trump Administration will continue to prioritize access so that people can hunt, fish, camp, and recreate on our public lands," he said. This order will address...

n the first significant check on the Trump administration’s “energy-first” agenda, a US judge has temporarily halted hundreds of drilling projects for failing to take climate change into account. Drilling had been stalled on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after it was ruled the Trump administration violated environmental laws by failing to consider greenhouse gas emissions. The federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages US public lands and issues leases to the energy industry, to redo its analysis. The decision stems from an environmental lawsuit. WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility,...

More Senate skullduggery, Trump’s role in this, straight lines, and the Bundy case again Senate chicanery Last month I wrote of the skullduggery applied by both political parties in trying to pass a 680-page federal lands package in the waning moments of the last Congress. Up stepped our hero, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) who just wanted to add two words to the legislation. Alaska and Wyoming are by statute exempt from the Antiquities Act that has been so abused by recent Presidents. Senator Lee wanted to add “and Utah” to that statute. The leadership said no to his amendment,...

Legislative legerdemain purposely excludes the public It almost happened, but thanks to Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), it didn’t. In a move of legislative legerdemain, this time led by Republicans, our illustrious Congress tried to pass a 680 page federal lands package in the closing moments of this Congressional Session. To accomplish this they needed unanimous consent, and Senator Lee, along with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, objected. Not having unanimous consent, the federal lands package failed. Now let’s step back and review how legislation is supposed to be passsed. A bill is introduced, let’s say in the House and...

Dan Love .. led Operation Cerberus ... Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wants to rein in the law enforcement authority of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service and is crafting legislation he says will either restrict or abolish their authority. Lee said Monday he aims to hem in powers he says were never envisioned under the Federal Land Management Policy Act of 1976. "Our federal land management agencies have drifted far from their intended purposes.. The BLM has expanded its operations far from public lands." ... The senator added federal land agencies exercise police powers on private land...