...Zinke, has been a strong advocate for American energy independence and has fought the Obama administration’s moves to limit coal, oil, and gas
production on federal lands. Zinke comes from a region of the country
in which the federal government owns much of the land and often imposes
its will on state and local governments. He has seen firsthand how
federal mismanagement of national forests, grasslands, and parks has led
to environmental destruction, local economic decline, and wasted
federal resources.
Zinke readily acknowledges the
reality of climate change, but argues the extent of human involvement in
it is uncertain and the threat it poses has been overblown by President
Barack Obama.
Zinke
has pushed for greater local, state, and tribal control over federal
lands and resource decisions, such as timber management and fossil-fuel
production, which is important because as interior secretary, Zinke will
be in a prime position to reform federal land and wildlife policies in
ways benefitting the environment and people.
There are also some positions Zinke holds that are worthy of scrutiny. Zinke rejects
the idea much of the land under federal ownership should be turned over
to the states or the people therein, and he supports fully funding the
Land and Water Conservation Fund, which the federal government uses to
buy more land.
There is no constitutional justification
for the federal government owning one-third of the land in the United
States and more than half of the land in Western states, as it currently
does, much less bringing more land and resources under federal
ownership. Bad management decisions have been endemic
to federal land and resource management agencies since their
inception—which have occurred under both Democratic and Republican
presidential administrations and under Democratic and Republican
Congress.
I hope with experience Zinke will come to
recognize it is the institutional incentive structure stemming from
federal ownership itself, not the personnel at the agencies, that is the
source of the environmental and economic harm resulting from federal
management. Devolution of federal land ownership
is the only long-term solution to the environmental harm and economic
malaise plaguing states in which the federal government controls a large
percentage of the land.
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