The president’s “big, beautiful” tax, defense, energy and immigration bill crashed and burned on Friday and with it temporarily the un-American idea that we should pay for tax breaks for a majority of wealthy Americans by selling the public lands owned by the rest of us 346 million Americans.
Unique to this country, public lands are every American’s birthright, national treasure and greatest wealth. Selling our shared public estate is an idea the Herald’s editorial board fiercely opposes, as should all Americans and members of Congress.
But that’s not what is happening. Earlier this year, we warned readers about the Republican’s draft budget (Herald, Feb. 1), which is finally coming to pass. Today, it is with the greatest urgency, perhaps in the history of our nation, that we ask Rep. Jeff Hurd to reconsider his support of the House Natural Resources Committee’s budget reconciliation bill that after a middle-of-the-night amendment last week now includes a provision to sell approximately 500,000 acres of public land in Utah and Nevada. A land area the size of our backyard Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado’s largest, this action would set a terrible precedent for the remainder of the almost 300 million acres of public lands nationwide and essentially open the door to their sale, never to be returned to the public trust.
Republican Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah, who introduced the amendment, stated the purpose is to use the parcels for economic development, for things like mining and infrastructure, expanding an airport and reservoir, and for affordable housing. As with other public land leases, these activities similarly could be accomplished by expanding the type of activity permitted on public lands, not by selling them for a one-time cash infusion to the U.S. treasury and transferring a public asset into private hands.
As we seek Hurd’s support, we must thank him first for hearing his Western Slope constituents’ opposition to this idea and being the sole Republican on the HNRC to vote against the amendment. Also, in time for Colorado Public Lands Day on Saturday, Hurd deserves credit for demonstrating his support for public lands last week by introducing, with Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act. Oddly, Hurd did not support the senators’ companion bill, the Dolores River National Conservation Act, a bipartisan bill also introduced last week supported in the last Congress by Republican Reps. Lamborn, Boebert and Buck.
We are seeking consistency in our representatives and would like to see him support this bill, too. Similarly, although Hurd voted against the amendment, which passed, he voted for the final HRNC bill that contains the Nevada and Utah public lands sale.
With haste, we urge Hurd to ask House Republican leadership to strip the public lands sale provision from the House final budget package. If it advances to the Senate, we will be looking for Sens. Bennet and Hickenlooper to do the same.
But that’s not the only thing that should be removed. Democrats and environmentalists are calling this bill one of the most extreme, anti-environmental bills in U.S. history. If one remembers James Watt, U.S. secretary of the Interior from 1981-83, it’s his policies on steroids.
Watt’s policies, as do provisions of the HNRC bill, opened up federal lands and prioritized access to them by oil and gas, mining and timber companies. The HNRC bill does that and introduces pay-to-play provisions for these companies to buy a speedier environmental review process (achieved by neutering the National Environmental Policy Act) that excludes the public from having input over balancing uses between conservation and development.
The Herald’s editorial board calls on Hurd to stand up for his constituents, for public input and for keeping public lands in public hands. We urge Hurd to push back on his party and join Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) as he voiced his opposition to the sale of public lands, “It’s a ‘no’ now. It will be a ‘no’ later. It will be a ‘no’ forever.”
