Friday, October 17, 2014

Jewell In New Mexico, If Congress Won't Act, The President Will

ALBUQUERQUE – U.S Interior Secretary Sally Jewell vowed Thursday that the Obama administration will continue to use its executive powers to protect public lands until Congress takes action on a number of stalled conservation measures. Jewell renewed the administration’s threat while speaking to a few hundred wilderness advocates at a national conference in Albuquerque celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. “There are dozens of bills in Congress, and they need to be passed – dozens of bipartisan bills, bills with wide support, broad support – but no one has the courage to pass them,” she said. “We need to encourage this Congress to get on with it and to move forward. Otherwise, we will take action.” The administration has been criticized in recent years after President Barack Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate a series of national monuments, most recently the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Since taking office, Obama has created or expanded 13 national monuments across the country. While the president does not have the power to designate wilderness, critics have voiced concerns that the preservation efforts being carried out administratively amount to federal land and water grabs, particularly in the West. Jewell dismissed those allegations Thursday, saying the administration has acted only when local communities have spoken up...more


“There are dozens of bills in Congress, and they need to be passed – dozens of bipartisan bills, bills with wide support, broad support – but no one has the courage to pass them,” she said. 

If the bills were truly "bipartisan", with "wide" and "broad" support, then they would have passed. Either she is purposely mischaracterizing the bills or she is receiving some very bad info from staff.  Besides, if the bills did have such support then it takes "courage" to bottle them up, not pass them.

Jewell dismissed those allegations Thursday, saying the administration has acted only when local communities have spoken up.

This statement is again inaccurate with reference to the Udall-Heinrich national monument in Dona Ana County.  Or perhaps she is being Clintonesque ( "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is") in her definition of local community.  If she means enviros and local politicians, her statement is correct.  However, since the legislation and the national monument were opposed by the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, the Hispano Chamber of Commerce, the County Sheriff, the Mesilla Valley Sportsmen's Alliance, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District and the local soil & water conservation district, she either doesn't consider them to be part of the local community, or she is once again misstating the facts.

2 comments:

L W said...

DOI needs to be dismantled. It is a massive organization with the agenda of locking up our lands - per in the 2010 DOI leaked documents. There are $150 Trillion in resources in those lands - which as federal are non-taxable - most already mismanaged without the more oppressive designations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ggFM60aJ-gA

Scott said...

The monument was also opposed by the New Mexico Sheriff's Association.