Raul Grijalva Tries to Block Energy Exploration During Shutdown

freebeacon.com ^ | October 7, 2013 | Lachlan Markay

[Tailgunner Joe]

A Democratic member of Congress is using the government shutdown to pressure the Department of the Interior to prohibit oil and gas exploration on federal land.

Energy companies should not be able to use federal lands if those lands are closed to hikers and campers, according to Rep. Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Grijalva started an online petition to demand that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “stop mining [on] public lands while visitors are locked out.”

“Fossil fuel and logging companies shouldn’t have special access to our federal lands while rangers, hikers and the rest of us are locked out,” the petition states.

Grijalva is the ranking Democratic member of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. That panel oversees 600 million acres of federal land.

He sent a letter to Jewell and Vilsack last week urging them to halt fossil fuel extraction on federal land “until visitors can return.”

“The lack of oversight of these potentially hazardous activities greatly concerns me, especially because of the scarcity of manpower to respond to emergencies, pollution issues or other rapid response needs,” he wrote.

Grijalva is a long-time foe of the energy industry, has pushed for additional fees on mining companies, and has vehemently opposed the construction of the popular Keystone XL pipeline.

Industry groups say Grijalva is using the government shutdown as an excuse to accomplish an eventual goal of completely ending fossil fuel extraction of federal land.

“The same groups pushing for bans during the government shutdown have also pushed for bans when the government was up and running, so I think this might be more about capitalizing on opportunity than recommending substantive energy policy changes,” said Steve Everley, spokesman for the site Energy In Depth, which is run by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, in an emailed statement.

Grijalva has used previous budget battles to attempt to levy additional fees on the fossil fuel industry.

He and Rep. Tom Udall (D., Colo.) pushed efforts during the “fiscal cliff” fight of 2012 to impose a 12.5 percent tax on miners who profited from extraction activities on federal land.

Those fees would impose additional costs on a number of companies that gave money to the campaign of Grijalva’s Republican opponent in his 2012 reelection battle.

Grijalva’s office did not return a request for comment.

[Zeneta]

Mexico. “New Spain” ceased to exist in 1824.

---

Really ?

How did that happen ?

[Regulator]

Raul Grijalva - Just a 70’s Mexican Separatist Radical, gerrymandered into a Congressional district. In no way is he an American.

Sally Jewel - British Watermelon (Green on outside, red on inside) who came to the U.S. to cause trouble. Somehow ends up in charge of lands taken away from her country 238 years ago.

How did these hostile foreign nationals end up in the government of the United States, and why should we bother calling them “Americans”?

[Rome2000]

He's a communist retard.

The CPUSA is allied with the CPC, they are one and the same along with the unions

That son of a bitch Warren in US Vs. Brown threw out the provision in Taft Hartley that required union leadership to sign affidavits that they were not communists.

As a result, union leadership is comprised of nothing but.

We are getting ready to hit the CPUSA and the American communist movement so hard that they wont have time to crawl back under the rocks they came out from.

No worker in the US should be held hostage to unions period, compulsory union dues are unconstitutional under the first and 14th amendments, and the unions need to be stripped of their ability to steal money from workers paychecks on a national level.

If the workers love unions so much they will be happy to voluntarily send them dues.

THE RED SONS OF BITCHES THINK THEY CAN STEAL MONEY FROM THE PRODUCTIVE CLASS VIA THE ELECTORAL PROCESS.

WRONG.

[La Lydia]

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Mexico. Guy hates this country. And he is a hard Left socialist with delusions of grandeur. No concept of private property. No respect for the Rule of Law. He was elected by the aliens who have invaded and conquered parts of Arizona.

[golf lover]

Better hope the Hindu’s don’t have the true religion. Otherwise, he might come back as a butterfly!

[ought-six]

The Mexican Constitution of 1824 declared Mexican sovereignty and the end of Spanish rule.

[Zeneta]

And Racism in Mexico stopped as a result ?

Really ?

[ought-six]

Follow the thread, doofus. Don’t take things out of context to try to cover up the fact you’re clueless.

[Zeneta]

Really ?

I know the issue.

It was someone on this thread that introduced the idea of where his loyalty lies.

Are you suggesting that a caste system doesn’t exist in Mexico ?

[ought-six]

Follow the thread.

My comment — and not to you, by the way — was that Grijalva was an ethhic bigot, and that his allegiance was to Mexico.

You piped up with questioning if by ‘Mexico’ I meant “New Spain” or the “indigenous Mexicans.”

I replied to that, explaining that I meant just what I said: i.e., that Grijalva’s allegiance was to Mexico, and that “New Spain” (which was what that part of the Western hemisphere — principally that area presently known as Mexico and Central America — was known as) ceased to exist as a soveriegn entity with the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which reiterated and affirmed that Mexico was sovereign and independent from Spanish rule (i.e, that New Spain as a political entity was abolished).

You, incredibly, took that to mean I was somehow inferring that Mexico was not racist.

Do you see your disconnect?

Now, follow this: (1) Grijalva is an ethnic bigot whose allegiance is to Mexico (i.e., the present political entity that is known as Mexico); (2) the present political entity that is known as Mexico used to be part of what was known as New Spain, and became so via the Constitution of 1824; (3) Since I never disclaimed that Mexico was racist, it must necessarily follow that Grijalva’s allegiance is to a racist Mexico (since I never disclaimed — or denied — that Mexico was racist).

Isn’t elementary logic fun?

[Zeneta]

Thank you.

Just so I am clear;

Does LaRaza represent the indigenous population, or the elites in Mexico ?

[ought-six]

The National Council of LaRaza — which is what we are familar with here — is a hard-left marxist group that is vehemently anti-Anglo. It is different from the Spanish movement (i.e., in the Iberian Peninsula) which is decidedly European and Catholic in its doctrine.

The National Council of LaRaza is most definitely a racist group, and it has — in its extreme — even condemned those hispanics who are not of indigenous or mixed lineage. Thus, they may show contempt for those hispanics who are of “unblemished” Castillian or Iberian stock, but will still align themselves with them against Anglos.

It’s a pretty screwed up mindset if you ask me.

[Zeneta]

Thank you again.

I am only looking for a sense of clarity with my questions.

I think that we both agree that there is a racist structure in Mexico.

What I see is an “elite” power structure (I’m not saying it is wrong) that is trying to export their “problem” of indigenous Mexicans to the US.

They would be supporters of La Raza in the US but not in Mexico.

[ought-six]

Good point.