The Republican Party Now Wants States To Seize Public Lands For Drilling And Mining

[ProSense]

The Republican Party Now Wants States To Seize Public Lands For Drilling And Mining

By Jessica Goad

At its Winter Meeting in late January, the Republican National Committee, the primary organizing and fundraising arm of the Republican Party, passed a series of resolutions, including one endorsing a “pro-life strategy” and another calling on members of Congress and Governors to “explain…burdensome federal regulations” to the public.

But in a surprising move for a party that is struggling to restore its appeal to moderate voters, the RNC also endorsed a fringe, right-wing campaign by some local officials to seize federal lands, turn them over to Western states, and further expand mining and drilling. The RNC resolved that:

(It) calls upon the federal government to honor to all willing western states the same statehood promise to transfer title to the public lands that it honored with all states east of Colorado; and …calls upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the imminent transfer of public lands to all willing western states for the benefit of these western states and for the nation as a whole.

The RNC’s resolution follows the re-emergence of the so-called “Sagebrush Rebellion” of the late 1970s that swept the western United States in a wave of anti-government fervor. Today, a small group of local officials and state legislators are reviving this effort. In March 2012, for example, Governor Gary Herbert of Utah (R) signed a bill demanding that the U.S. Congress turn federal public lands over to the state by 2015, or the state will sue (legislators have appropriated $3 million of taxpayer money to fight this legal battle). Similar efforts are underway in Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, and other states.

Although the RNC’s resolution presents thoroughly debunked constitutional arguments to justify the seizure of federal lands, the real goal of the effort appears to be to dramatically expand drilling and mining of fossil fuels on federal lands — but without federal environmental protections and with profits going exclusively to corporations and states, rather than federal taxpayers.

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/11/3277571/republican-party-state-public-lands-drilling/

House Republicans Voted Against Environmental Interests 95 Percent Of The Time In 2013
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024481841

[jwirr]

1. Can they still do that using the public domain laws? In the 50 the electric company wanted to put

poles and wires along the road but on our property. They paid us the going rate per acre but we did not have a choice in selling.

[Bandit]

2. Why do they want to export more of our oil to China

I could sort of understand if we were short of oil, but we are not. We are Exporting almost as much oil as Saudia Arabia. EXPORTING.. We apparently have an over abundance of oil and yet they insist we despoil more land for more oil to EXPORT.

[malthaussen]

5. Is this a question?

Because they would like to make a great deal of money.

-- Mal

[Bandit]

8. I realize the Oil Industry wants to Drill as much as possible but the average Republican

doesn't make lots and lots of money by exporting our oil. Why do they want to strip our nation of it's resources?

[malthaussen]

9. To please their sugar daddies?

Or is your difficulty that you think they work, by and large, for the good of the whole country and not just for the good of the people who fund them?

-- Mal

[freshwest]

3. Grand Theft Party should their moniker. Fastest way to get rich is by war and theft.

They know that the greatest fortunes and empires were created that way. It's working pretty well as they have so many helpers.

BTW, they've been seizing park land and public facilities state by state by the Nordquist method for years.

Starving the government to prevent it from maintaining and making those assets useful and call it budget cuts. After a while, people forget the asset exists and it is always sold off to the same private interests that support the GOP or NGOs that they use as their stalking horses.

The examples of this are so common that the publlc doesn't even notice. It's just 'business as usual.'

[okaawhatever]

4. Anyone remember Bush auctioning off the drilling rights to federal land? How about the poor guy who

ended up in jail? Thankfully Obama reversed those "sales".

[malthaussen]

6. Well, they're doing a great job of despoiling state public lands...

... I guess all that "wasted" Federal land arouses their... patriotic instincts.

-- Mal

[woo me with science]

7. While the Obama administration sells off the Gulf of Mexico.

Leave it to the propagandists to pretend that both parties aren't looting this country into devastation. The corporate propaganda has no shame.

Obama Administration Offered More Than 20 Million Acres in Western Gulf of Mexico for Oil and Natural Gas Exploration and Development
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021896005

We are bought and sold, and the corruption is NOT confined to the Republican Party.