Pearce talks forestry bill - and lizards too

Congressman Steve Peace talked Tuesday about jobs, the timber industry, endangered species and water at the village of Cloudcroft council chamber. Pearce recently introduced his House of Representatives bill 1202 "to restart jobs in the timber industry by providing for the protection of the Mexican spotted owl in sanctuaries." Pearce said the legislation would initially create 5,000 new logging jobs in New Mexico. "The timber industry in New Mexico had 20,000 jobs," he said. "I have to believe we would get 5,000 jobs in the first year. They would be started immediately. It would take a little bit longer to begin to develop more extraordinary markets. Keep in mind that 20,000 jobs would put us at full employment in New Mexico." Pearce said he believes the environment can be protected and people can be put to work...more

H.R. 1202 has 8 cosponsors, but the text is not available yet at Thomas.

Oh my goodness, the Center For Biological Diversity has posted a copy of the bill and it appears they have a slight disagreement with Congressman Pearce, saying the legislation would force the Mexican spotted owl into internment camps.

Truth be known it's the rural citizens of New Mexico who've been entrapped by the envirocrats and it appears Pearce is trying to set them free.

Looking for other dragons to slay, so to speak, Pearce has been busy with lizards as the USFWS is proposing to list the sand dune lizard found in southeastern NM:

Rivals say protecting endangered lizard threatens oil, gas industries “The listing of the lizard has several bad outcomes, but jobs is the worst outcome. We stand to lose agriculture production, all of the oil and gas jobs; it might shut down the nuclear enrichment facility,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who cites New Mexico's joblessness at 9 percent...more

I'm sure the envirocrats won't listen, but a NM outfit has a solution. More Sanctuaries? No in this case it's a lizard safe-haven:

A nonprofit in Carlsbad that deals with impacts from hazardous material on the environment has studied the issue closely and says it has come up with a plan to create a lizard safe-haven, while allowing the oil and gas industry to continue operating. “All indicators are that the plan is actually working. We are getting lands, and conservation measures on lands, for both the lesser chicken and the sand dune lizard,” said Douglass Lynn, director of the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management.

Bless Pearce and the nonprofit for trying to make the ESA work, an admirable goal in the short run. In the long run, it's the ESA that needs to be fixed. 

And I'm just wondering - Do Spotted Owls eat lizards?