Posted on 03/05/2010 6:16:55 AM PST by Recon Dad
Sen. Tom Coburn should be the poster child for the modern conservative movement in America. Dr. Coburn has been known to burn the midnight oil to keep an eye on a federal government that spends too much money, spends money poorly and is growing day by day.
Coburn recently sent out some startling information about what the federal government owns and what that costs you and me.
Federal officials are not required to report their total land holdings. According to best estimates, the federal government owns at least 654 million acres of American soil. That is about 30 percent of all the land in the country and one out of every two parcels in the West.
Since 1997, the feds have taken over 90 million additional acres. In fact, in some states, the federal government owns more property than private landowners.
In Nevada, it owns more than 80 percent of the land. The percentage of federal lands in Utah is 57 percent and 53 percent in Oregon.
So, what’s the big deal? Well, it’s a big deal because a faceless federal bureaucrat somewhere has more control of this land than the governor of those “sovereign” states or even the state legislatures.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently said the maintenance backlog for these lands stands as high as $19 billion, up 60 percent in just five years.
And Congress is buying more and more land, mostly through special earmarks that are not subject to floor debate in the Senate. But as the inventory of government land skyrockets, national landmarks like the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, Yosemite and the National Mall have less funding. The pie can only be sliced so thin as funds are drawn to take care of new areas.
The U.S. Government controls a 700-million-acre subsurface mineral estate and with the most conservative estimates, its on-shore lands contain at least 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Oil shale on federal lands are estimated to contain an additional 1.23 trillion barrels of oil, almost five times the proven reserves of oil giant Saudi Arabia.
Those are staggering numbers.
If we own all those resources, why aren’t we energy independent?
According to a analysis by the Bureau of Land Management, only 8 percent of federal lands with oil and gas reserves are open for standard leasing, with 60 percent of oil and gas on federal lands completely closed.
Instead of opening up the resources of these publicly owned lands, restrictions on usage are becoming more and more onerous. In the past 40 years, more than 100 million acres have been subjected to severe public access restrictions. Two million more acres have been added in the last year.
America owns a lot of the land along its borders. Federal land management agencies are getting bolder in asserting their right to control that land instead of deferring to the Border Patrol and its efforts to halt illegal entry, violent drug dealers and human traffickers.
And now President Obama wants to spend another $620 million for federal agencies to buy more land. We already have $260 million budgeted for land purchases in 2010.
Coburn, who is in the Republican minority, has offered these amendments to public land bills:
• A prohibition on additional land purchases until the federal government deals with its growing maintenance backlog;
• A requirement that federal agencies report on all land holdings and the cost to maintain them;
• Prohibiting federal land agencies from forcibly taking private land by using eminent domain;
• Permission for property owners to opt out of restrictive National Heritage Area designations. (The Senate accepted this amendment, and it is now public law.)
• Deletion of a provision that eventually blocked access to over 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil in Wyoming.
• Prohibiting federal agencies from entirely blocking access to renewable energy reserves.
• Prohibiting the Department of the Interior from interfering with Border Patrol activities. (The Senate modified and accepted this amendment.)
Thank God for Tom Coburn and his burning ambition for the people to know the truth.
Oklahomans should be very proud of their senators. Must be nice - we have McCas-kill.
This has always fascinated me. Why should our government own anything?
When a person becomes a net debtor they are required to sell off assets to meet their obligations. The Federal Government should sell off some assets (to Americans) to pay their bills.
Have you ever asked yourself what’s the collateral for all of our debts? This article begins to answer that question...
For example the BLM task group will have to
--inventory Federal land ownership;
--determine how much of that is currently used Federal buildings and parking areas, and military bases;
--determine how much of the rest contains hazardous or potentially hazardous residues (such as former bombing ranges, impact areas etc.);
--coordinate with the newly-reestablished War Department for EOD on such areas;
--arrange for the sale of such lands as were bought up for the unconstitutional purpose of keeping The People off of it;
--Etc, etc, etc.
It's a big job, but will have to be done. Personally, I'd rather not; I'd rather be in the Department of Education task group; whose tasks will pretty much be "send everybody home, turn off the lights, lock the doors, hold a massive yard sale of office equipment, and notify Century21 or ReMax that they're about to get a really big Commercial Office Space listing."
Well, a man can dream...
You go Dr. Coburn.
Just last week Bill O’Reilly was saying that BO isn’t a socialist because he isn’t taking homes.
Well, he is grabbing more and more land, it won’t be long.
Thank you Oklahoma and thank you God for Senator Coburn.
He’d make a fine President !!!!
Coburn/Ryan 2012 !!!
Well when you set yourself up to be the only one who has the right to buy land from the original owners you are going to end up with a lot.
Next stop on the “dream tour” would be the Energy Department. Could anyone tell me what they do?
Isn't the little O encouraging defaulters to stay in their home so the government can come to their rescue?
My condolences on McCaskill. In Oklahoma, even the lone Democrat in our Congressional delegation is willing to stand up to Pelosi and the administration (from timt to timt at least).
"Let me be clear, all your base are belong to us," Obie.
Your dreams are the same as mine!
How about the EPA, gone would be good! They are draining the lifeblood of this country with their ridiculous regulations.
ACLU...various government agencies....All Environmental Lawyers.....hell all lawyers.......Illegals....
One can only dream.
btt, and I’d bet a dime that it locks up a lot of natural resources like low sulfer coal, natural gas, or oil.
During the so called Summit trap on healthcare while O' was addressing Dr. Coburns statements, the look on the Dr's. face said it all.
O's was stumbling again for words, Dr. Coburn respectively listened to what O' was saying, but the look on his face was priceless. The kind of look that says, O' your a complete idiot. Which he is.
Have you ever spoke with someone who you know is making it up and twisting words, it is impossible to counter those types and you know it, you let it go and they think they won. That was the look of Dr. Coburn, how do you argue with a egomanical moron?
The post-Restoration DoE task group would first identify classified weapons-related functions and hand them (and any necessary infrastructure) to the War Department.
Then, identification of native sources of energy and their availability to producers, with a view to increasing them.
Deregulation. There is no reason and should be no law against those who own a piece of land above an underground source of energy being able to tap it for use or sale.
So true; some people just love to blow smoke and then maybe it’s best to stay away, since it could be methane gas instead.
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