Liberty Matters News Service
April 15, 2003
Senate
Approves S. 476
The
U.S. Senate voted, 95 to 5, to approve S. 476, the Care Act of 2003.
Thursday’s vote was a disappoint to the property rights
community that had spent many hours diligently working to convince the
Senate to remove Sections 106 and 107 that provided 25 % reduction in
capital gains to landowners who sold their property to land trusts or to
the government for conservation easements.
Many believe that the provision would not particularly help
landowners because preservationist organizations would likely discount
the selling price to take into account the tax benefit.
Other legitimate buyers could be shut out of the bidding process,
since the benefit only accrues on sales to non-profit land trusts.
This language expedites more land ending up in the hands of
environmental organizations and, eventually, facilitating the
government’s increase in its landholdings.
Sen. Don Nickles, (R- OK) offered an amendment that would expand
the two sections to all buyers and essentially remove any benefit to
land trusts, but it was tabled, 62 to 38.
LTA
Lauds Senate Action; Senate Approves Conservation Tax
Environmentalists
Accused Of 'Hijacking' The Faith Based Initiative
Feds
Agree to Limit Wilderness Protection
The
Department of Interior, on Friday, capitulated to “Utah’s legal
argument that current federal policies toward potential wilderness are
illegal.” They also
stated that they intend to halt all reviews of its western land holdings
for new wilderness protection and remove legal protection from millions
of acres of Utah land that had been identified as “potential”
wilderness. They also said
they would discard current wilderness policies as laid out in the
“Wilderness Handbook,” a management policy concocted during the
Clinton Administration. The decision is a blow to environmental groups that have
traipsed through the West cataloging areas they wanted as wilderness and
which the Bureau of Land Management then incorporated as de facto
wilderness. Environmentalists
had identified 9 million acres in Utah as “potential wilderness” and
in 1999, an inventory ordered by then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt,
identified 5.9 million acres. The
area is now scaled back to the 1991 figure of 3.2 million acres, which
Gov. Mike Leavitt says is a good place to start.
In a letter to Congress, Secretary Norton wrote; “The
Department of Interior stands firmly committed to the idea that we can
and should manage our public lands to provide for multiple use…”
The settlement will affect not only Utah, but all the western
states where similar policies have been in effect.
Claiming no surprise at the move, Jim Angell, attorney for Earth
Justice (Sierra Club), said; “Given this administration, it is no
surprise…it adopted the most radical anti-environmental position it
could.”
Potential
Wilds No Longer Get Protection
Endangered
Species May Benefit From Cloning
An
event that occurred in Iowa this month has the potential to pull some of
the teeth from the Endangered Species Act.
Scientists successfully cloned a Javan banteng from a skin cell
taken from a banteng that died in the San Diego Zoo in 1980.
The cells were kept frozen until last year when technology
advanced to the point they could be cloned and introduced as embryos
into the wombs of beef cattle at an Iowa cattle reproduction facility.
Of the 45 banteng embryos transferred to 30 cows, only two made
it to term and were delivered by Caesarean section.
One of the calves is doing very well, while the other is hanging
on to life. This technique
could alter the need for an Endangered Species Act by replenishing
species of animals and plants deemed so endangered that the use of
private property must be curtailed and industry shut down in order to
restore them.
Bouncing
Banteng Born To Iowa Cow
Florida
Boaters Want No-Slow Zones
Boaters that use
five Florida rivers are very critical of the federal government’s
proposal to require them to putt slowly through certain sections of the
rivers to protect manatees. The
feds are holding hearings throughout the protection areas after
environmentalists went to court to demand increased protection of the
mammals. Capt. Kent
Gibbons, fishing guide and lifetime resident of the area scoffs at the
plan. “What they really want to do is get boats out of the water.
We have all the laws we need.”
He said when he was a kid it was very unusual to see them.
“Today they’re everywhere and they didn’t use to be.”
Sandra Clinger of the “Save the Manatee Club,” disagrees;
“When you look at the history of mortality, with the increase in
recent years, that’s why we believe the current speed zones are not
sufficient.” “According to state statistics 30 manatees were killed by
watercraft in east Volusia between 1974 and 2002…” (that’s
slightly more than 1 a year). Ted
Forsgren, executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association,
says more regulations are not necessary.
“The state of Florida alone has already established more than
one quarter of a million acres of manatee protection zones….[T]here is
simply no justification or science to support federal action.”
(See story above!)
Florida
Boaters Want U.S. To Slow Down On Manatee Protections
Hage
After
wining the property rights phase last year in Hage v. United States,
the court has set trial for the takings and compensation phase of the
case for May 3rd – May 21st of 2004 in Reno,
Nevada. Hage v. US
was filed in the US Court of Federal Claims after the government
regulated and physically confiscated the Hage’s property, forcing them
out of the ranching business. Plaintiffs
filed their case to prove landowners own property rights in the federal
lands and that environmental regulations go too far in regulating
landowners.