Posted on 03/30/2014 10:38:30 AM PDT by george76
Will Obama use two small birds to limit oil drilling in the West?
Almost half the land west of the Mississippi belongs to the federal government, including 48% of California, 62% of Idaho and 81% of Nevada. No surprise that the Obama Administration wants to control more. But the result could be to suppress the country's booming oil and gas development.
In partnership with green activists, the Department of Interior may attempt one of the largest federal land grabs in modern times, using a familiar vehiclethe Endangered Species Act (ESA). A record 757 new species could be added to the protected list by 2018. The two species with the greatest impact on private development are range birdsthe greater sage grouse and the lesser prairie chicken, both about the size of a barnyard chicken.
...
The sage grouse is found in 11 western statesCalifornia, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Most of the areas affected are federal lands routinely used for farming, ranching, mining, road building, water projects and oil and gas drilling.
However, much of the prairie chicken population and some sage grouse are on private property that could become subject to some of the most invasive private land-use rules and property acquisitions in the history of the protected-species law.
...
Environmental groups have won victories by using a strategy called "sue and settle" under which groups propose species for protected status and then sue the federal government, which settles the lawsuit on terms favorable to the greens rather than fight. These settlements typically bypass a thorough review of the scientific evidence and exclude affected parties, such as industry and local communities.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Where is Boehner? Afraid to cut funding again ?
If it were not the sage grouse it would be the some rare smelt or “endangered” tick. They’d go all the way down to paramecium if they had to.
Let’s barbeque all the sage grouses and lower the price of gas.
Best time for harvesting sage chickens is starting about Aug. 1. A .22 long gun is an excellent harvesting tool. Target the young ones. They are the best eating.
Corner. Crying. Either way, the epa or the esa is gonna get us.
This is why we must NOT have RINOs in office. They will do nothing to limit the scope, mission or politicization of the Federal Bureaucracy. They may go to bat on a particular issue, mostly due to the influence of lobbyists and money - but they will not do what is absolutely vital - shutting down whole agencies, cutting funding drastically, and clearing out biased political and ideological bureaucrats.
Abomination!
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There fixed it.
Which sounds almost the same as Obamanation.
The greenies told me to my face if they didn’t get the sage grouse listed, they’d go for the pygmy cottontail.
BOOMERS!
Ping.
“The greenies told me to my face if they didnt get the sage grouse listed, theyd go for the pygmy cottontail.”
The greenies are today’s Luddites. They are against all technology. Yet they drive their Volvos and Subaru’s to Starbucks to sip $7 lattes and they watch their big screen plasma TV’s. Then they arbitrarily pick out energy and decide that’s not only the perfect technology to stop, but it will also damage everything by driving up prices. The logic escapes me. (Oh, they’re invariably pro-abortion, anti-Christian, pro-Musilm...it makes no sense.)
The green nuts are using the lesser prarie chicken to campaign against wind power, which I find confusing. I thought the nuts loved windmills.
Environmentalists think this will harm oil and gas, and they are right. But, guess what?
Wind farms are the biggest threat to sage grouse and prairie chicken habitat. No more wind farms.
We can either encroach on critters, or have energy.
You 11 western states had better REBEL!!!
They’re Luddite for others, not themselves. Typical totalitarian elitism on their part.
Bush Homeland Security.
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