- Juab County Commissioner voice concerns about Omnibus public lands bill
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County Commissioners are concerned about the effect passage of a public lands bill would have on the county.
“We oppose S. 22,” said Val Jones, commission chairman.
Monday, Juab County Commissioners received an up-date on the state of the Omnibus public lands bill from Mark Walsh, Executive Director of the Western Counties Alliance.
The report came in the form of a message written by Walsh and sent via electronic mail to the commission.
“On Wednesday, western state congressmen led by Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, ranking minority member of the House Resources Committee National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee and Chairman of the congressional Western Caucus along with Washington Rep. Doc Hastings, Ranking Member of the full committee, were able to stop House passage of the massive Omnibus public lands bill,” said Welsh. “The action came on an attempt to pass the bill under a procedure known as ‘suspension of the rules’ which requires a two thirds majority vote and does not allow for amendments.”
The 282 to 144 vote fell two short of the required two thirds majority. The bill, S. 22, has already passed the Senate.
Jones said he understood that the bill may come up again for a vote in the House and in short order.
“Western members and others objected to some of the provisions in the 1260 page bill, which rolls about 170 smaller bills into one single piece of legislation,” said Walsh.
Some of these bills that have been included have never been the subject of hearings in either the House or the Senate and some of them would lock up important natural resources, including energy resources, he said.
Others are earmarks to create new national park units even though there is a huge infrastructure backlog of unfunded repairs needed in established national parks.
“One of the provisions causing great concern is establishing in federal law the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) land management overlay on public lands,” said Walsh. “In past alerts we have explained the danger of codifying the NLCS.”
The NLCS, he said, was established in the waning days of the Clinton Administration under the guidance of former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Its authorship is questionable and currently subject of an investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Interior. Currently, the NLCS covers some 26 million acres of lands which the BLM is charged with “protecting” as “special areas.”
“If enacted into law in the Omnibus bill, this provision alone would significantly undermine the long-standing multiple-use philosophy and management directive of the BLM and would give federal bureaucrats a broad mandate to create a management regime to enforce these undefined “values” on a vast, resource-rich part of the country,” Walsh said.
Making the NLCS permanent threatens recreation, access, grazing, mining, oil and gas and many other multiple uses critical to the economic health of the country and to western public lands counties.
“This defeat of the bill under suspension of the rules means that we have a chance to force the bill to be brought up under the regular procedures,” said Walsh. “This gives us the chance to try to amend it on the floor.”
“I have been in Washington this week working on this bill and other issues and I have no illusions about how tough it will be to remove any of the bad provisions,” he said.
The vote margin shows that there are more than enough votes to pass it under the regular procedures which require only a simple majority vote.
“We will keep working on it, however, and keep you informed of significant developments and suggest what you can do to help,” said Walsh.
The bill now is back before the Rules Committee.
“Now would be an ideal time to weigh in with your congressman and urge him or her to be prepared to oppose a rule bringing this bill to the floor,” he said.
Walsh also attached the summary of some of the major provisions and concerns about S. 22.
By the Numbers, he said, the Omnibus Lands Grab and Energy Restrictions Act (S. 22) would allow: 10 new National Heritage Areas; 14 studies that would create or expand National Park Service jurisdiction;19 provisions specifically withdrawing federal land from mineral leasing, such as oil, gas, and coal exploration: 80 new federal wilderness designations or additions to public land; 92 rivers designated as wild and scenic, a designation that imposes federal jurisdiction and regulation on the impacted waterway, and involve significant land acquisition authority; 1,085.77 miles of river designated as wild and scenic, a designation imposing federal jurisdiction and regulation on the impacted waterway, and involve significant land acquisition authority and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Wyoming taken out of energy exploration.
“The word ‘controversial’ is used 37 times in the CRS report describing provisions in the omnibus,” said Welsh.
He said there are 165 plus bills included in the omnibus package and 1,246 pages in the omnibus.
If the bill passed in its present form, there would be 1.2 million acres in Wyoming withdrawn from mineral leasing and energy exploration; 2.186 million acres designated as federal wilderness land, which eliminates all major recreation and prohibits any new oil and gas leasing; 3 million plus total acreage withdraw from energy leasing; 331 million barrels of recoverable oil being taken out of energy exploration in Wyoming.
Sending is another concern with $640 million spending included in the bill for new state and local water projects; $915 million total increase in mandatory government spending over the 2009-2018 period; $10 billion total projected cost to the federal government on enacting the omnibus; $9 billion the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog of projects needed on existing federal park land;
Welsh also included “Some Highlights of the Lowlights of S. 22.”
S. 22 contains Taunton River Wild and Scenic designation that would block a vitally needed gas pipeline that would help supply the Northeast with energy (see the Wall Street Journal’s editorial about this provision: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121555960271037429.html).
“The bill S. 22 is opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” said Welsh.
It would codify the controversial National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) that is currently being investigated by the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General for improper conduct between NLCS employees and environmental groups and would lock up 26,000,000 million acres of land.
The bill would make fossil collecting on federal a federal crime and strongly hamper paleontological discoveries and includes creation of controversial Paterson, New Jersey National Park that not even the National Park Service wants (at a cost of $37 million dollars).
It would make millions of acres off limits to OHV use; would limit the ability to hunt on millions of acres; would further increase the digital divide in rural areas by restricting the ability to install telecommunications towers on millions of acres across the Nation; would eliminate the ability to mine in several areas across the Nation destroying high paying jobs; would hinder the ability of local law enforcement, Border Patrol and Homeland Security to secure national borders by imposing land use designations that would eliminate the ability to use vehicles; and would eliminate the ability to even ride a bicycle on millions of acres of federal lands.
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