Skip to comments.
DuBois column - BLM’s westward trek and enviros losing water battle
New Mexico Stockman ^
| 9/4/2019
| Frank DuBois
Posted on 09/04/2019 8:15:22 AM PDT by cowpoke
BLMs westward trek and enviros losing water battle
Moveem out
The Department of Interior is moving forward with their plan to relocate the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to Grand Junction, Colorado. The reorganization would have the top twenty-seven BLM positions make the move to Grand Junction while three hundred or so will be assigned to various positions in the West. Sixty-one positions will remain in D.C.
The plan to move BLM headquarters is vehemently opposed by the environmental lobby groups, which means, guess what, it is opposed by the Democrats in Congress. Leading the pack is Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). Udall, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations, has said the relocation is not based on rigorous financial and organizational analysis, nor is it intended to increase the Bureaus accountability and improve the management of our nations public lands. Udall further stated.
in light of the recent appointment of an acting Bureau Director with a long-established record of attacks on public lands, the actions of the Department suggest something far more damaging: a deliberate effort to dismantle and weaken the Bureau. Apparently supporting the multiple use concept of managing federal lands is an attack in the eyes of Udall.
Udall and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn), have demanded the Department immediately suspend its efforts to relocate. In response, Interior released a statement saying, "It's troubling that Sen. Udall and Rep. McCollum seem to have missed the numerous detailed reports, Committee and staff briefings, and written responses to every single question asked by the Congress during the past few months. All of these briefings and communications have explained the advantages, efficiencies, and other savings of such a relocation to the Department, our stakeholders, and the public. We have stressed from early in this process that it was consistent with and responsive to the feedback received from a broad range of partners, including members of Congress, Governors, local officials and the public. In addition, we have provided office-level, state by state breakdowns of the benefits of this effort."
Another issue being raised by the opponents is a federal statute that says, all offices attached to the seat of government shall be exercised in the District of Columbia, and not elsewhere, except as otherwise provided by law. In response, Interior wrote, all offices attached to the seat of government should be interpreted as an executive department, a term defined elsewhere in the U.S. Code to include the Department of the Interior, but not its component parts. Interior also pointed to other entities, such as the Food and Drug Administration, which are located outside of D.C.
The Public Lands Foundation, a group of retired BLM employees, is opposing the reorganization and have written to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources requesting they hold a hearing on the matter. In their letter, they say the headquarters should stay in D.C. where decisions are made that affect all Americans. The relocation, they say, would benefit the short-term interests of local stakeholders to the detriment of all other constituents and the long-term needs of the public lands. They also say the breakup of the D.C. structure will promote local, parochial interests over the national interests.
Did you ever wonder what BLM employees thought about the comments you make on the local level concerning resource management plans, allotment management plans, draft EISs, etc.? Then just look up the synonyms of parochial, and there you will finds words like: narrow-minded, limited, close-minded, petty, blinkered and myopic. Now you know how they view your comments, thanks to this insight from an organization of six hundred retired BLM employees.
POTUS & WOTUS
The U. S. Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972 to restore and maintain the integrity of our nations waters. In general, the CWA prohibits the discharge of materials into navigable waters without a permit. Navigable waters are defined as waters of the United States. And just what are the waters of the United States? That is the big question.
In 2015, the Obama administration, through the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, issued an expansive definition of the term. That rule, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, creates confusion and risk by giving the agencies almost unlimited authority to regulate, at their discretion, any low spot where rainwater collects, including common farm ditches, ephemeral drainages, agricultural ponds and isolated wetlands found in and near farms and ranches across the nation, no matter how small or seemingly unconnected they may be to true navigable waters.
There have now been two Federal District Courts that have found the Obama WOTUS rule to be substantively and procedurally invalid. The first, issued in May of this year, is Texas vs. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The second, and most recent was issued in August by a Federal District Court in Georgia. Judge Lisa Godbey Wood found the Obama WOTUS rule, extends the Agencies delegated authority beyond the limits of the CWA, and thus is not a permissible construction of the phrase waters of the United States. She also found the rule with its significant increase in jurisdiction takes land and water falling traditionally under the states authority and transfers them to federal authority and thus is unlawful. I think I have fallen smack dab in love with a federal judge. Judge Wood also found that the rule was procedurally invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act because, among other things, the final rule was not a logical outgrowth of the proposed rule published in the Federal Register. My heartstrings are singing.
Next, we wait on the Trump administration, who is preparing a new rule to define waters of the United States. Whatever they come up with, we can be assured that it too will wind up in court. Meanwhile, the 2015 enviro-inspired rule is drowning in federal court.
Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and dont forget to check that cinch.
TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: blm; blmgrandjunction; colorado; epa; newmexico; wotus
1
posted on
09/04/2019 8:15:22 AM PDT
by
cowpoke
To: cowpoke
“Did you ever wonder what BLM employees thought about the comments you make on the local level concerning resource management plans, allotment management plans, draft EISs, etc.? Then just look up the synonyms of parochial, and there you will finds words like: narrow-minded, limited, close-minded, petty, blinkered and myopic. Now you know how they view your comments, thanks to this insight from an organization of six hundred retired BLM employees.”
The money paragraph
2
posted on
09/04/2019 8:20:33 AM PDT
by
headstamp 2
(There's a stairway to heaven, but there's a highway to hell.)
To: cowpoke
Hey, if you are having trouble filling those top level jobs because they dont want to move to Grand Junction, call me. I would be pretty happy in Grand Junction.
3
posted on
09/04/2019 8:27:38 AM PDT
by
wastoute
(Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
To: cowpoke
Moving BLM to Grand Junction would constitute an enormous bonus to employees' quality of living.
My top agency moves, however, would be: (1) HUD to Detroit; and EPA to Houston, Texas, where the agency would be housed in non-airconditioned offices and where EPA employees could actually meet some of the people whose jobs they are trying to destroy.
4
posted on
09/04/2019 8:46:37 AM PDT
by
sphinx
To: cowpoke
I think that moving federal agencies out of DC and closer to the areas they impact is brilliant. DC is a bubble that insulates politicians from the people and the realities of routine life; thus, bureaucrats make decisions that are divorced from reality. Placing the agencies in the areas most affected puts everyday realities in the faces of the bureaucrats, who can no longer force uninformed opinions on people without seeing first hand the damage those opinions inflict.
5
posted on
09/04/2019 8:57:05 AM PDT
by
exDemMom
(Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
To: sphinx
6
posted on
09/04/2019 9:09:57 AM PDT
by
cowpoke
To: cowpoke
7
posted on
09/04/2019 9:24:28 AM PDT
by
Zathras
To: wastoute
Grand Junction is/was awesome! The local food is amazing. I hope it wasn’t ruined by liberals!
8
posted on
09/04/2019 10:51:59 AM PDT
by
gr8eman
(Only the mediocre are always at their best)
To: cowpoke; LegendHasIt; leapfrog0202; Santa Fe_Conservative; DesertDreamer; OneWingedShark; ...
Lots of stories to Ping today. This is the first.
![](http://www.freerepublic.com/images/flags/us/newmexC.gif)
NM list PING!
I may not PING for all New Mexico articles. To see New Mexico articles by topic click here: New Mexico Topics
To see NM articles by keyword, click here: New Mexico Keywords
To see the NM Message Page, click here: New Mexico Messages
(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for FR member use; its use in the News Forum should not be for trivial or inconsequential posts. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
(For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after answering a question or watching a short video commercial.)
9
posted on
09/04/2019 12:21:51 PM PDT
by
CedarDave
(Google has blacklisted Free Republic in its search engine. Use duckduckgo for searching.)
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.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson