Former Interior Secretary Babbitt calls GOP land proposal a ‘giveaway of our great outdoors’

Source: Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is blasting as “radical” a Republican proposal to open up more than 50 million acres of public lands to logging and other development.

Babbitt, who was Interior secretary for eight years under President Bill Clinton, said the GOP bill would virtually repeal the 1964 Wilderness Act and open an area the size of Wyoming to development.

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A host of industry groups, including the American Loggers Council, the California Cattlemen’s Association and the Independent Oil Producers’ Agency, support McCarthy’s bill, while environmental groups oppose it.

-snip-

Babbitt, who recently criticized President Barack Obama for failing to lead on environmental issues, said he was speaking out against the bill “so that the American people can see and clearly understand the threat it poses to our public land heritage.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-interior-secretary-babbitt-calls-gop-land-proposal-a-giveaway-of-our-great-outdoors/2011/07/26/gIQAEEX3ZI_story.html

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The article explains that the Obama administration does oppose this radical Republican bill. But we need more prominent Democrats speaking out on this issue.

This bill is an attempt to implement what some Republicans have called a government "yard sale" which I first started hearing about early this year:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x514948

This also fits in with the attempts by radical Republican politicians at the state level to sell off or privatize state parks and other assets -- a disgusting looting of public assets being promoted by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. (See reply 319 there for a link to the topic on ALEC's "Publicopoly" -- its most blatant promotion of this grand theft.)

especially those who have been taught that 'public' is a bad word, that THEY own public lands as well.

And the public has been brainwashed to accept it, with no respect for themselves and their heritage, no respect for their elders or those that are coming before us. Expect to see the country divided up like old Europe was, with many more miles under the control of those who regard the rest of us as worthless mouths. Feudalism isn't dead.

Thanks for the thread, highplainsdem.

What do they do when checking for someone's right wing cred?

"So, tell us about your politics."

"I'm 100% against all the right things."

"You're in. Welcome to the club."

The Frack: Ohio Gov. John Kasich Wants To Open Up State Parks For Oil And Gas Exploration
By Guest Blogger on Mar 16, 2011 at 3:49 pm

At the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, an exemption was inserted into a 2005 energy bill — dubbed the “Haliburton loophole” — which stripped the EPA of its power to regulate a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. This method, called fracking, entails drilling a L-shaped well deep into shale and pumping millions of gallons of water laced with industrial chemicals — chemicals which the energy companies are not legally bound to disclose. The poisonous fluid fractures the shale and releases natural gas deposits for collection.

More at: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/16/150967/kasich-fracking-state-parks/

it`s really hard to imagine the republican party is further to the right than nixon.

we can thank nixon and the congress for passing the epa legislation.

today the republicans want to erase years of progress.

"McCarthy and other Republicans called the bill a commonsense proposal that acts on recommendations by government agencies to open up public lands for increased public use."

Whose common sense? Which government agencies? Which public lands? Which public? And I thought corporations were just private persons. Now I guess they're public persons too. The difference is that you or I (as public persons) have a right take a walk in the wilderness, but we may remove nothing. Under this legislation, corporations (as newly minted public persons, I suppose)will have a right to cut them down and remove them for profit merely by having their demented political stooges change the law. Sound familiar?

with them wanting to re institute the gilded age.

Low wages, company stores, pollution out the whazoo and nowhere to go that is "public" = Serfdom here we come.

Just in case, yes, it's:sarcasm:

:kick:

I figured part of their deficit reduction plan would soon include the sale or lease of government controlled assets.

Logging and "other development". Holy shit.