BLM move would split apart key public lands team

Rebecca Beitsch

The team that assesses the environmental impacts of major projects on the nation’s public lands will be split up and spread across seven states, according to new internal documents breaking down the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to relocate most of its Washington-based employees out west. The documents reviewed by The Hill provide insight into how BLM plans to split up teams, spreading people who currently work together to offices across different states. “It’s more apparent than ever to me what the goal is for this proposal, and it’s not to make things more efficient and to get things on the ground,” said Steve Ellis, who served 38 years with BLM before resigning from its highest level career position in 2016. “Staff is being scattered so they can’t work together efficiently and effectively.”...MORE

This is written as if faxes, scanners, instant document sharing and video conferencing didn't exist. They don't have to be in the same room in D.C. to be an interdisciplinary team.

This comes after Interior announced in 2017 it would streamline the NEPA process by centralizing reviews primarily among some of the highest-level Interior and BLM political appointees.

 The above is what they really object to, along with removing the employees from the "corridors of power" in D.C.  How dare they attempt to streamline a process that has effectively choked off management initiatives and turned management of federal lands over to the courts. 

NEPA is a federal law passed by politicians and administered by employees who are funded by politicians. Every NEPA document is political in nature and it is really ignorant to assert that political appointees should somehow remain divorced from the process. I'm beginning to wonder if these folks believe that elections don't matter. If you want nonpolitical decisions, then remove these lands from the federal estate.