Donald Trump’s Administration is shaping up to be as unorthodox as his campaign. Further evidence is his choice of Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke for secretary of Interior. Mr. Zinke’s history of deference to Washington landlords isn’t Trumpian.
The
Interior Department is responsible for managing 640 million acres of
federal land—28% of the U.S. More than half of Nevada (85%), Utah (65%),
Idaho (62%), Alaska (61%) and Oregon (53%) belong to Washington.
Interior’s canopy covers the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife
Service, Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
These are distinct fiefdoms but are required to coordinate on permitting
decisions.
These layers of bureaucracy increase taxpayer costs
and delay decision-making. According to the Property and Environment
Research Center (PERC), federal land agencies lose $2 billion a year.
User fees—i.e., permits—are unconnected to the cost of services, and
federal agencies have no incentive to restrain spending, which is
determined annually by Congress.
By
contrast, state natural resources agencies are funded almost entirely
by user fees. Between 2009 and 2013, the Forest Service (part of the
Agriculture Department) raised on average only 28 cents for every dollar
spent on recreation, compared with Montana’s $6.31. PERC estimates that
state-managed lands generate 10 times more revenue per full-time
employee than those operated by Uncle Sam. About one-fifth of BLM
grazing allotments aren’t meeting the agency’s own standards, and the
National Park Service has a $12 billion maintenance backlog.
Once upon a time, environmental groups would purchase land for
conservation. Now they conscript government to seize it. In 2011 the
Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to consider the Center for Biological
Diversity’s petition to list 757 species under the Endangered Species
Act, which could result in hundreds of millions of acres being withdrawn
from private use.
An Interior rule-making this year expands the
definition of “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act, and
BLM’s plan to protect the greater sage grouse will inhibit mining,
grazing and drilling on 60 million acres in 11 states. A rule finalized
by BLM this month reduces state influence in future land-use plans.
States and private landholders have sued to block several of Interior’s
land grabs.
Mr. Zinke could use consent decrees with litigants to
roll back the land grabs. He could also work with Congress to transfer
federal lands to states, as legislators in Arizona, Utah, Idaho and
Alaska have petitioned. Yet he voted against Speaker Paul Ryan’s budget
this year because of an amendment that allowed the sale of federal lands
and he opposes transfers to states. He has also supported permanently
authorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which Interior uses to
buy up even more private property.
Hunting and outdoor groups
fear that private developers will pave national parks to put up shopping
malls. Yet states have a better track record than Washington of
maintaining public resources. They also issue permits in a fraction of
the time. Mr. Zinke has opposed the Obama Administration’s regulations
on fracking and methane flares on public lands, but his support for
imperial federal land managers deserves Senate scrutiny.
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