Republicans didn’t campaign on getting rid of
America’s public lands and national monuments in the last election, but
they sure are acting like it.
First they attempted to pass a bill that would abolish the Antiquities
Act, a hundred year old executive privilege that allows Presidents to
protect threatened public lands and designate national monuments.
Now, they’re using Congress’s annual budget process to lay the
groundwork for turning America’s public lands over to state control for
sale to private mining, drilling and real estate companies.
Tell
Congress: Do not transfer America’s public lands to state or private
control. Click here to sign the petition.
This latest assault on America’s public lands is at the hands of Sen.
Lisa Murkowski, the new Republican chair of the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee. Her amendment, which passed by two votes and is now a
part of the Senate’s official budget, would fund state efforts to seize
America’s public lands and then sell them off to the highest bidder.1
Under state control, these public lands would likely be sold off for
real estate or fossil fuel extraction. Hundreds of millions of acres of pristine public lands
in the American West that are the cradle of future national parks,
monuments, and preserves would instead be sacrificed to dirty oil drilling
and fracking companies.
According to New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, who stands in opposition
to these attacks, “selling off America’s treasured lands to the highest
bidder would result in a proliferation of locked gates and no-trespassing
signs in places that have been open to the public and used for
generations.”
But here’s the good news: Because Congress’s budget is non-binding,
these proposals need further legislation to actually take effect. That’s
why it’s incredibly important to step in now to let Congress know exactly
where Americans stand on this terrible idea.
Tell
Congress: Do not transfer America’s public lands to state or private
control. Click here to sign the petition.
This is a coordinated attack on government management of taxpayer owned
public lands. Murkowski’s amendment mirrors a similar proposal by House
Natural Resources Committee chairman Rob Bishop, that would spend $50
million of taxpayers’ money to transfer America’s public lands to states
for private sale.
With these attacks, Republicans are marching in lockstep with the
self-serving ideology made famous by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who
refused to pay $1 million owed to American taxpayers for grazing his cattle
on public lands on the grounds that states have “sovereignty” over public
lands. Even Murkowski
herself described President Obama’s decision to protect the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as “a stunning attack on our sovereignty.”2
We need to make sure Congress knows Americans won’t stand by while
Republicans wage war on America’s public lands. Tell Congress that
America’s public lands are NOT for sale:
http://act.credoaction.com/sign/Public_Land_Sale?t=9&akid=14317.2170767.lrDMnr
Thank you for your activism.
Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager
CREDO
Action from Working Assets
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