Bombshell: Harry Reid behind Bundy cattle ranch scandal, according to purged documents

Biz Pac Review ^ | 4/12/14 | Joe Saunders

[jimbo123]

Amid the growing standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government, reports are growing that Senate Majority Harry Reid’s little-known ties to a Chinese solar energy giant could be playing a major role in the confrontation.

Reid, D-Nev., and his oldest son, Rory, a former chairman of the Clark County, Nev., County Commission, are both deeply involved in a plan by ENN Energy Group to build a huge solar farm in southern Nevada, according to a Reuters report from August 2012.

Land the Bundy family has been using for cattle ranching is getting in the way of that project, according to documents formerly posted on the Bureau of Land Management’s government website but since removed.

The acting director of the Bureau of Land Management is Neil Kornze, a former senior policy advisor for Reid.

Here is a screenshot of one crucial document from Google’s cache.

The most interesting line might be:

“Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle.”

The federal government’s story so far is that the whole showdown is necessary for the protection of gopher tortoises.

[Nifster]

Isn’t it interesting how the communists work? No wonder Harry isn’t complaining....He is as dirty as they come. It is why he is willing to see O continue on

[GOPJ]

spotlight needed on the land deal with Chinese

Too bad we don't have a free press - they could check this out...

[kcvl]

Neil Kornze, Principal Deputy Director, Bureau of Land Management

[MHGinTN]

Hildy, the GOPe shill at FR says this is not about the deal, it’s about tortoises and the BLM ruining the Western States. So, we know how the GOPe wants to protect filthy Harry ‘Temple Recommend’ Reid.

[Busko]

Pravda

[bgill]

Well, well, well. The dots have connected in a circle around ol’ Harry.

[mad_as_he$$]

Stop oil, promote solar.

[kcvl]

Reid has opposed road building in national forests and supported setting aside 5.6 million acres in southern Nevada to protect the threatened desert tortoise.

More than 85 percent of Nevada is federally owned; there are 48 major mines and more than 179,000 active claims on that land. “The economy of rural Nevada is tied to the mining industry in a big way,” explains Alan Coyner, chief administrator of the Nevada Division of Minerals. The industry claims to generate 102,000 jobs and pump $9.6 billion annually into the economy. “If a punitive royalty is imposed that closes or doesn’t allow a bunch of mines to open,” says Coyner, “then you’ve got a bunch of unemployed Nevadans.”

Nevada’s Cortez Mountains, a rugged chain where Barrick Gold plans to excavate 6,750 acres of public land thought to contain 250 tons of gold. The delay of mining reform has been an unquestionable boon to the project, known as the Cortez Hills mine. If the House bill had become law, the site’s known reserves would generate as much as $450 million in royalties.

Until the next gold rush, Searchlight struggles to reinvent itself. A whorehouse is now a senior center. Near the lot where Reid’s childhood home once stood, a billboard advertises a casino. A subdivision for snowbirds that recently went up along Harry Reid Road sits largely vacant. It’s hard not to wonder what might have happened if more than a century of mining royalties had helped fund parks and sidewalks.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/harry-reid-gold-member?page=3

[kcvl]

As the agency’s Principal Deputy Director. Kornze oversees the agency’s management of more than 245 million acres of public land nationwide.

…

Before coming to the BLM, Kornze worked as a Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Please politely share your concerns with Director Kornze– who, as a representative of the people– presumably looks forward to hearing from you…

BLM Washington Office
1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665
Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3801
Fax: 202-208-5242
director@blm.gov

[kcvl]

There’s a $5 billion foreign energy project in the works, with Reid and his son directly involved, and his former go-to guy on development issues in the driver’s seat at the Bureau of Land Management.

And there’s an American citizen and cattle rancher standing in the way of federal agents armed with guns and the full power of the federal government behind them.

What could go wrong?

Neil Kornze’s Overview

Senior Policy Advisor at U.S. Senator Harry Reid

Education
London School of Economics and Political Science
Whitman College

Senior Policy Advisor
U.S. Senator Harry Reid
January 2003 – January 2011 (8 years 1 month)

[McGruff]

the endangered desert tortoise, a tortoise so “endangered” that their population can no longer be contained by the refuge constructed for them so the government is closing it and euthanizing over a thousand tortoises. The tortoises, the excuse that BLM has given for violating claims to easements and running all but one lone rancher out of southern Nevada, is doing fine. In fact, the tortoise has lived in harmony with cattle in the Gold Butte, Clark County Nevada for over a hundred years

http://danaloeschradio.com/the-real-story-of-the-bundy-ranch/

Yo got some essplaining to do Harry.

[kcvl]

Harry Reid:

“Twenty years ago the Bureau of Land Management had a lower approval rating than the Internal Revenue Service. But they have done a good job of becoming more modernized.”

“Neil was born and raised in Elko County. He really does understand the role of rural America. He has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He has, as indicated here, spent a lot of time in my office.”

“he understands to develop policy in the Western part of the United States you have to have consensus. There is a lot of competing interest there and he understands that. And frankly, he and I have learned a lot of that together. You just can’t charge forward and do what you know is right because you may be wrong.”

http://www.reid.senate.gov/press_releases/20131217reid-remarks-on#.U0mfxSe9KSM

[kcvl]

President Obama has nominated Nevadan Neil Kornze to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Kornze has championed the administration’s plans to lease public lands for solar-energy projects.

Previously he worked for eight years as an aide to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev).

Kornze’s boss, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, had this to say about him: “Neil has helped implement forward-looking reforms at the BLM to promote energy development in areas of minimal conflict, drive landscape-level planning efforts, and dramatically expand the agency’s use of technology to speed up the process for energy permitting.

Kornze played a key role in developing the Western Solar Plan, which established 17 low-conflict zones for commercial solar energy development and also identified lands appropriate for conservation, and the agency’s approval of 47 solar, wind and geothermal utility-scale projects on public lands, as a leader of the Department’s Renewable Energy Strike Team. When built, these projects [will] add up to more than 13,300 megawatts — enough electricity to power 4.6 million homes and support 19,000 construction and operations jobs. He also has been a leader in reforming BLM’s oil and gas program, including the upcoming launch of a nation-wide online permitting system that could significantly reduce drilling permit processing times, and in the bureau’s efforts to enhance and increase visitors to the diverse system of national conservation lands.

Press Here

[VRWC For Truth]

RICO, RICO, RICO.

[Impy]

What about the Bunny Ranch? Has Harry been there?

[Popman]

Starting to seem that lots of dems are crooks.

Starting ?

[bikerman]

Harry, call for you on the RED phone.

[zot]

Thanks for the Dirty Harry ping.

[Carriage Hill]

He’d have been charged for “assault with a dead weapon”.

[Dr.Deth]

Looks like the sort of guy who you could hand a shovel to, and confidently declare to be a Kornze-holer.