Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumMore Bold GOP Leadership! Another Bill To Sell Off National Forests, At Taxpayer Expense, Of Course
A proposal to seize and sell off Americas national forests and other public lands could make its way into the House GOPs budget resolution when it is announced this week. In a recent memo to the House Budget Committee, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, proposed that Americas public lands be transferred to state control. He then requested $50 million of taxpayer money to be spent to enable transfers to start immediately. The memo states that public lands create a burden for the surrounding states and communities, and the solution is to convey land without strings to state, local, and tribal governments.
Bishops plan and similar proposals to give away Americas public lands are controversial. A majority of voters in those regions believe the proposals would likely result in states having to raise taxes, open prized recreation areas to drilling and mining, or sell lands to private interests to cover the substantial costs of management.
Despite these concerns and despite the fact that these proposals are extremely expensive, unpopular, and most importantly, unconstitutional there is a strong likelihood that Rep. Bishops request will be included in the House GOPs budget, thanks to intensive lobbying efforts by a handful of right wing politicians and special interest groups.
As reported by E&E Daily, the American Lands Council (ALC), an organization founded by Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory (R), hired a lobbyist at the end of last year to educate congressional lawmakers on the benefits of relinquishing federal lands to the states. Federal lobbying disclosure forms show that the ALC paid the lobbyist, Michael Swenson, $150,000 for just three months of lobbying work. Swenson, whose other clients include a Utah mining company, has denied being paid the sum. He told E&E the lobbying disclosure form was a mistake, and that he was paid just $20,000 in the last quarter of 2014.
EDIT
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/16/3633814/gop-budget-public-lands/
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... for pennies on the dollar.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)A recent flood of state-level proposals to seize and sell off Americas public lands is the result, in part, of efforts by the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to disseminate model legislation to conservative lawmakers in Western states.