Free Republic

The Biden administration has continued the modern Democrat tradition of perverse federal land use policy. It comes as a surprise to most Americans that the federal government owns nearly one-third of the nation’s land mass, in excess of 640 million acres. (It also owns 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), but that is another story.) Most know of the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior and its 80 million acres of parks, preserves, reserves, monuments, memorials, historic sites, battlefields, and recreation areas, in every state. Many Americans may be familiar with the 141 national...

Say adiós to the conservation of American history, heritage, and culture—it was good while it lasted. Reported by John Binder at Breitbart yesterday, Joe Biden has officially announced his opposition to congressional legislation that, if enacted, would prohibit the federal government from developing federal lands into tent cities and sprawling migrant camps. The statement released by Biden’s office reads as such: The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 5283, which would prohibit the use of Federal funds to provide temporary shelter to certain noncitizens, including migrants seeking asylum, on Federal lands falling under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, the Bureau...

The new BLM rule introducing so-called conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s vehicle for locking up federal property. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to fundamentally reshape how public lands are managed without congressional approval. In March, the agency unveiled a sweeping proposal to establish a framework for “conservation leases” that places a newfound priority on preservation. The new Public Lands Rule presents a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” Congress outlined for the agency in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). New Rules Are a ‘Game Changer’.. FLPMA requires federal lands...

More than a dozen House Republicans on Wednesday voted against legislation to promote public education about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The bipartisan bill was authored by Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and passed handily by a vote of 406-16. All of the no votes came from Republicans, including several members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus...... The bill would specifically create a Japanese American World War II history network administered by the National Park Service to connect historical sites associated with the mass internment of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor launched by...

The US House of Representatives has passed a historic public lands preservation bill that pledges to protect nearly 3m acres of federal lands in Colorado, California, Washington and Arizona. The act combines various bills that languished without Senate approval during the Trump administration. Key provisions include permanently banning new uranium mining on land surrounding the Grand Canyon, giving wilderness designation to 1.5m acres of federal land, and preserving 1,000 river miles by adding them to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.... ...The bill, called the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act, has strong support from the Biden administration, in...

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on Saturday at the American Conservative Union’s 2020 CPAC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, that President Donald Trump has made it a priority to give Americans access to federal lands for both pleasure and business. In keeping with that goal, Bernhardt said that his agency is committed to making sure that 245 million acres in the western United States be “specifically designated to be managed for multiple use.” “We’ve expanded by 1.4 million acres this last year as opportunities for hunting and fishing on public lands and in forests, but more importantly we have ensured the...

The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a right-of-way allowing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to be built across U.S. land, pushing the controversial $8 billion project closer to construction though court challenges still loom. The approval signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and obtained by The Associated Press covers 46 miles (74 kilometers) of the pipeline’s route across land in Montana that’s controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Casey Hammond, assistant secretary of the Interior Department. Those segments of federal land are a small fraction of the pipeline’s 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer)...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The Bureau of Land Management is moving its headquarters to an office building in Colorado that also houses oil and gas organizations, drawing criticism from environmental groups. The building’s other tenants include two oil and gas companies as well as a state oil and gas association. The BLM regulates oil and gas leases and development on the land it oversees. The Denver Post reports representatives of environmental groups are concerned about the close association between oil and gas interests and the agency.

Reining in federal land ownership--a drop in the bucket When the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was designated under President Clinton’s purview in 1996, it created real hardship for regional ranchers. New management rules locked up more than one and a half million acres, discontinuing grazing leases that were imperative to sustain cattle growers who’d been using the land responsibly for more than a century. Part of the impetus for closing off natural resource development at the time was to halt access to one of the best sources of low sulfur coal, including from tribal populations, putting a stranglehold on arid...

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday revoked a rule that aimed to give the public more input into federal land management decisions, the latest move by the Republican-led Congress to undo Obama administration environmental regulations it sees as a burden. The Senate voted 51-48 to approve a resolution to repeal the Bureau of Land Management’s Resource Management Planning rule, known as BLM 2.0, finalized in December by the Obama administration.

<p>A Montana lawmaker has resigned as a delegate to the Republican National Convention over the GOP's position on the transfer of federal lands to states.</p> <p>Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke told The (Billings) Gazette that he still plans to give a speech Monday to the convention about national security. But he says he's withdrawing as a delegate because the GOP platform is "more divisive than uniting."</p>

There were two indictments unsealed in connection with the protest-occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. Newly charged were Geoffrey Stanek and Travis Cox. Stanek has been arrested, Cox has not yet been arrested at last report. There are now 25 people charged in connection with the protest. Back in 1968 when anti-Vietnam War protestors violently disrupted the Democratic National Convention, with f-bombs coming from their mouths and throwing excrement at the authorities, their leaders were charged. Their supporters and the mainstream media dubbed them "The Chicago Seven". Those now accused of protesting non-violently in Oregon may need a...

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz promised Nevada voters he will transfer control of federally-held lands back to the states if he's elected. "If you trust me with your vote," Cruz says in a new ad revealed Thursday. "I will fight day and night to return full control of Nevada's lands to its rightful owners, its citizens." Cruz criticizes fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump for his reluctance to champion state control of federal land. The ad begins by lamenting the fact that the federal government currently controls 85 percent of the land in Nevada, including the Lake Mead National...

"I think what I'd do, as president, is I would make a phone call to whoever, to the group," he said, adding later, "I'd talk to the leader. I would talk to him and I would say, 'You gotta get out -- come see me, but you gotta get out.'" "You cannot let people take over federal property," Mr. Trump said. "You can't, because once you do that, you don't have a government anymore. I think, frankly, they've been there too long." Mr. Trump said he wasn't necessarily suggesting a large-scale military action, but that "at a certain point you...

Go big or go home. If you enjoyed paying $1.59 a gallon for gas this past weekend, understand a few things. To the extent domestic production affects this, the oil industry is mostly gettings its resources on private lands. That’s because Obama, while he’s happy to take credit for the increased productivity and lower prices, is fighting new leases on federal lands wherever he can. That’s how he can reassure his left-wing base he’s an enemy of the oil industry while also taking credit for the low prices. But there is some oil being extracted on federal lands, and if...

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt joined Dave and I to talk Ted...no not Ted Talks, Ted Cruz. Attorney General Laxalt will be stumping for Ted all across the state leading up to the Republican Nevada Caucus February 23rd, he believes that Senator Cruz is the best candidate, not only for the Country but for Nevada. One of the biggest issues in the west and specifically in Nevada is the amount of Federally controlled lands, something Attorney General Laxalt has been fighting against and he believes Senator Cruz would be the best candidate to help champion that fight.

Trump says Americans shouldn't let the government turn the West into a federally-owned frontier. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Forget China, guns or immigration. Donald Trump is taking on a new issue: federal land ownership. In a new op-ed for the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Republican presidential front-runner rails against the "draconian rule" of the Bureau of Land Management and the Obama administration's "land grab" in the western United States. "The BLM controls over 85 percent of the land in Nevada," Trump explains. "In the rural areas, those who for decades have had access to public lands for ranching, mining, logging and energy...

Activists protesting federal land mismanagement and the imprisonment of Dwight and Steven Hammond recently occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building in Oregon. Some facts, context and perspective may help people understand what's really going on here. At its core, this is about the often callous, iron-fisted hand of the federal government being slammed down on American citizens. Examples abound - from the IRS targeting 200 conservative groups, to the seizure of cars and bank accounts of innocent business owners, to heavily armed Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) agents bursting into Gibson Guitar facilities over phony exotic wood violations,...

The Obama administration is looking favorably at the plan by a Chinese economist to collateralize China’s enormous US debt with a huge swath of America’s Heartland which is, coincidentally, populated by a Conservative voting bloc. Our valuable real estate, infrastructure and profitable corporations, all in RED STATE territories, are now under the evil gaze of liberal operatives whose hatred for any and all things American is exceeded only by their greed and globalist nature. “Yu Qiao, a professor of economics in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsighua University in Beijing proposed in 2009 the plan for the...

Rep. Rob Bishop has a radical plan for changing public land policy, and it starts with an experiment in his home state of Utah. The Republican is known for shaking things up with his dry sense of humor and occasional belligerence toward Obama administration officials. Easily identified by his three-piece suits and coiffed white hair, the new House Natural Resources Committee chairman is trying to turn his panel from a legislative backwater into a driver of reform. Washington Examiner: With the Land and Water Conservation Fund, I hear a lot about how the states need more control. But how can...