Private Hands Off Public Lands
The DOGEm cars continue to spin, careen and crash.
This week's victim is the Department of the Interior. This means that national parks, monuments, historical sites and federal lands are open to exploitation, and the dedicated employees who have maintained and protected them can be fired. The time for environmental review and input has been slashed from months to weeks, justified by claims that the country is facing an energy emergency.
Thoughts:
There is no emergency--the US produces more energy than it consumes. (If there was an emergency, why would the administration block a wind farm in New York?)
"Fast-tracking" approval of leases (from months to weeks) means eliminating public input.
Mineral resources are non-renewable. Consuming them now is short sighted, especially when...
The focus is so clearly financial. (Doug Burgum, Inerior secretary, has said he viewed America’s public lands and waters as part of the country’s financial “balance sheet."
Our national history of environmental abuse by unregulated businesses is dark, shocking and shameful. The classic pattern: tear it up, take the dough, let someone else clean it up.
Some things, once broken, can't be put back together.
I continue to be stunned by our belief that we, those of us in this year, this generation, this century, this political era--matter so much. That in the scope of all of human history, we justify taking what we want now without regard to what comes next. The suggestion that a century from now, the citizens of this nation will care more about today's balance sheet than the existence of our shared lands? Insanity.
This weeks mantra: "Private Hands Off Public Lands"
For those in my generation: "Leave the coal, take the snail darter."
Includes interesting thoughts on revising regulations: “Abundance" by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein
