As I understand it, Nixon "gave" us the EPA at the same time certain other governments were worried about the value of the dollar, and these governments would feel better if the US government owned more land containing strategic resources (so that private citizens would not be able to deplete the resources). I agree the EPA is out of control and in the hands of leftists now. Was that Nixon's motive?
At the same time, there were real problems in the Cuyahoga River and the Great Lakes. Are there some Nixon memoirs that reveal that he wanted the EPA to confiscate private land from US citizens, and to keep private industry from using resources? I am reluctant to try to read minds.
Do you have a link that would help to clear this up?
I’d recommend everybody read Justice Alito’s concurrence. He pokes a finger in the eye of COngress and treats the EPA fascists as that brown stuff that gets on the bottom of your shoe from time to time. Alito understands property rights. Good appointment there W.
My understanding is that it was to collateralize Federal debt pursuant to the demands of the French. I have little doubt of it.
Do you have a link that would help to clear this up?
I wish I did. The details of the explanation were given to me in private conversation with Wayne Hage, although IIRC, he did mention it in Storm over Rangelands (I haven't checked it for a footnote). If you've read how his work is documented, you'd realize that if he said such a thing he had solid reason for saying it (G_d rest his soul; I'd love to have access to his library).
I have also heard Greenspan say on C-Span in Congressional testimony that the government needed to collateralize water resources in the West. I almost swallowed my teeth that he'd let that out in open session. I wish I'd have written down the venue so that I'd know where to look in the Library of Congress.