Liberty Matters News Service
January 29, 2003
Rep.
Richard Pombo (R-CA) was chosen to be chairman of the House Resource
Committee. He has long been
a friend of landowners and is expected to approach resource management
issues with an emphasis on protecting private property.
Susan Holmes, legislative advocate for EarthJustice was not so
enthusiastic when she said: “It’s
very disturbing that one of the most anti-environmental voices in
Congress has been chosen to lead the committee charged with protection
of our wildlife, public lands and forests.”
In a position paper last year, Pombo said, “[I]n a host of
federal laws, government agencies are increasingly controlling the use
of private land for public purposes and refusing to pay the just
compensation that our Constitution requires.
I believe strongly that the federal government should be required
to compensate people when regulations deprive them of the ability to
earn a living on their land."
Pombo’s legislative spokesman, Doug Heye, strengthened
landowners’ hopes that Pombo would bring some common sense to the
regulatory process by saying that the congressman will work toward
“more responsible management of lands and forests, a comprehensive
long-term energy supply policy, and clean air and water supply.” Pombo has also been a loud critic of the Endangered Species
Act where he has not only voted for, but has championed a series of
bills that would greatly weaken the ESA.
Rep. Pombo
Wins Resources Chair
Court Agrees: CA Coastal Commission Unconstitutional
The California
Appeals Court has upheld the lower court’s ruling that the powerful
California Coastal Commission is unconstitutional.
The Commission was formed in 1976 to help local governments draw
up coastal management plans, but soon overstepped its authority.
For years, it has butted into every land use issue be it
“parking slots in coastal down towns, to whether the Navy can use its
aircraft carriers, to what landowners can plant in their gardens,”
according to Pacific Legal Foundation attorney, James Burling.
Charges of corruption have dogged Commission members for years.
In 1993, one commissioner was convicted of soliciting bribes for
permits and in 1987, the U. S. Supreme Court found the Commission guilty
of “out-and-out extortion,” for its actions in a land-rights case.
In 2001, a California Superior Court judge, in response to a suit
by Sacramento lawyer Ron Zumbrun, found the Commission to be
unconstitutional because the state legislature could appoint and remove
a majority (8 of 12) of the commission members at their whim, thus
violating the state’s separation-of-powers doctrine. Governor Gray
Davis has called a special session for a quick fix to the problem, which
observers say will do nothing but guarantee lengthy court battles
because all they are proposing is to give the eight commissioners fixed
terms of just two years.
California
Coastal Decommission
Interior May Privatize 70% of Park Jobs
Interior
Secretary Gale Norton has announced a plan to consider turning over as
many as 11,807 full time Park Service positions to the private sector.
Officials made clear that the process wouldn’t happen
overnight, but changes would occur as employees retired, possibly 20% of
the current force, in the next five years.
Horrified critics suggest that such action would subject the
replacements to “political” pressure, something that professional
government workers are trained to resist, according to Roger Kennedy,
Park Service director during the Clinton years.
Others fear private sector biologists would not maintain the same
level of integrity currently practiced in government laboratories.
(See Fact or Fiction below). Randy
Erwin, National Federation of Federal Employees expressed outrage at the
idea. “It’s a travesty
to turn the Park Service into a profit-making center.”
And James Oliver Horton, former Clinton-era historical consultant
for the Service, likened the Federal workers to the Marine Corps; “I
observed the kind of camaraderie that comes from people who consider
they are doing the Lord’s work…..”
Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said the
government is behind times in outsourcing labor.
“Something as mulch-ridden as the Park Service is long overdue
for this.” Hopefully,
Secretary Norton will stick with the plan and not cave into the
“stunned” and “horrified” federal workers.
70%
of Jobs in Park Service Marked Ripe for Privatizing
Next month, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must have its ducks in a row to decide
whether the California Spotted Owl will be “endangered” or
“threatened.” The
question is, will the outcome be based on sound science or political
expediency? Government
agencies have been found guilty of refusing to share scientific data
with interested parties, a fact that has led to costly lawsuits.
Recently, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims found that the U.S.
Forest Service unlawfully denied a timber sale to Wetsel-Oviatt Lumber
Co. of California, even though it had passed an extensive environmental
impact statement and approval process.
The sale was denied because Forest Service biologists claimed
timber harvest would irreparably harm wildlife habitat.
The Court found that the so-called evidence was not based in
scientific fact and appeared biased by the “personal predilections”
of government officials. Currently, USF&WS in Arizona is stone-walling to deny the
National Association of Home Builders access to information regarding
location and numbers of pygmy owls, prompting a suit by NAHB. The government’s scientific credibility has suffered since
last year’s revelation that government biologists falsified evidence
of the presence of Canadian lynx in Washington state forests.
It will be interesting to see if the Service bases its Spotted
Owl decision on facts or fiction.
Spotted
Owl Roosting on Dubious Science?