DuBois column - A candidate’s policy, Bernhardt at Interior and astrophysicists on your ranch

A candidate’s policy, Bernhardt at Interior and astrophysicists on your ranch

Presidential candidate

U.S. Senator and candidate for president Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), sometimes referred to as Pocahontas because of a false claim of Native American heritage, has released her proposed federal lands policy. This is interesting to observe as it gives us a peek at the wish list of progressives and their environmentalist kin.

Warren tells us “it is wrong to prioritize corporate profits over the health and safety of our local communities.” Therefore, she says, “on my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that says no more drilling — a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases, including for drilling offshore and on public lands.” A stroke of the pen and we have a moratorium. Keep in mind that 16 percent of U.S. crude oil production comes from offshore wells, and 21 percent is from federal lands (a decrease from 36 percent in 2015). Her moratorium would shut down almost 40 percent of our oil production in the U.S.

Warren would also reinstate Obama’s methane pollution rule “to limit existing oil and gas projects from releasing harmful gases that poison our air.” She would also bring back Obama’s rule on the waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) “to protect our lakes, rivers, and streams, and the drinking water they provide.”

She also accuses Trump of committing “the single biggest rollback of protected lands in U.S. history” and states “I will use my authorities under the Antiquities Act to restore protections to both monuments (Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante) and any other national monuments targeted by this Administration.”

Warren has plans for the Land and Water Conservation Fund too, declaring she would make spending on the program “mandatory.” It will not matter what else happens to the budget – war, depression, overall spending cuts – fully funding this land acquisition program must happen.

Shutting down 40 percent of our oil production will cost many thousands their jobs. Warren has a plan for some of those who lose their jobs. “I will recruit 10,000 young people and veterans to jumpstart a 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps — and increase the budget of AmeriCorps’ one-year fellowship program to fund it. This will create job opportunities for thousands of young Americans caring for our natural resources and public lands, deepening their lifelong relationship with the great outdoors” she says. I guess the rest will begin a “lifelong relationship” with being unemployed.

No matter what moniker you put on these proposals – the Pocahontas Public Lands Policy, the Progressives Public Lands Policy, the Putrid Public Lands Policy, or Warren’s War on the West – you can summarize it as follows:

---Profits are bad

---Oil is bad

---National monuments and the like are good

---Even the small puddles on your property will be regulated 

---Federal acquisition of land will be mandatory, and

---Thousands will lose their jobs

There is your peek at the progressive-enviro agenda. I hope you enjoyed it.

New boss at Interior

The U.S. Senate has confirmed David Bernhardt as the new Secretary of Interior. Bernhardt had served as the deputy secretary since 2017 and as the acting secretary since former Secretary Zinke resigned in January of this year. During the George W. Bush administration Bernhardt had served as deputy chief of staff and counselor to then-Secretary of Interior Gale Norton. Later in the Bush administration he was named as DOI’s director of congressional and legislative affairs. In 2006 President Bush nominated him to be the solicitor of the department. Bernhardt was unanimously confirmed by the Senate and held that position until leaving the department in 2009.

Bernhardt then returned to the Colorado-based law and lobbying firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Shreck, became chair of their natural resources law division and represented clients such as the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Westlands Water District in California, which just happens to be the largest irrigation district in the country. Interestingly, on behalf of Westlands, he sued Interior over their restrictions imposed to protect an endangered salmon. It is this period as a lobbyist that has created much of the controversy surrounding his nomination. Opponents claimed he had represented so many clients on different issues that it raised a myriad of ethical and conflict of interest issues.

The vote to confirm Bernhardt as Secretary was 51-46. The two New Mexico senators split their vote, with Tom Udall voting no and Martin Heinrich voting yes. Remember Heinrich voted for Zinke and then opposed almost everything he did. On Bernhardt, he was one of only three Democrats to vote in favor of the nomination, which was opposed by all the environmental groups. Knowing of Heinrich’s close ties to the environmental community, why would he vote against their wishes and the vast majority of his own political party? I figure it was to curry favor with Chairman Murkowski and the rest of the Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The nomination was going to pass anyway, so why not throw a bone to the majority party that he needs to pass his wilderness and other environmental bills.

Star gazers and cow grazers

For decades, astrophysicists have used infrared technology to find and study stars. Most recently they have turned their interest toward earth. After all, if they can find stars with this technology, why not use it to find endangered species? In what is being called “the first official collaboration between astrophysicists and ecologists, a team from Liverpool John Moores University went in search of Bornean orangutans, a critically endangered species that hides in the forests of Borneo, a southeast Asian island.” The collaboration was actually a contest between thirteen biologists on the ground and the astrophysicists flying drones with specially equipped cameras. The biologists found 28 of the critters, while in far less time the astrophysicists spotted forty-one.

A new group has been formed, calling themselves “astroecologists.” Their goal is to improve and use this technology and by “applying methods and technology from astrophysics, engineering, and computer science, we aim to help solve major global challenges such as mass extinction, environmental pollution, climate change, and disaster response.” If you see a drone over your place with a Smokey Bear symbol on its side, it is not there to fight fires. Every plant, wildlife species and cow is about to be identified and uploaded into a government computer.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

 This column first appeared in the May editions of the NM Stockman and the Livestock Market Digest 

Column also available at  https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/2019/06/dubois-column-candidates-policy.html