Liberty
Matters News Service
August 11, 2006
Fed's Conservation "Listening" Tour
U. S government officials are venturing into America's hinterlands for the first public hearing of the President's "cooperative conservation" plan. Attendees are being given two minutes to express their views on a variety of conservation issues all beginning with the question; "How can the federal government…?" The first session was held in Spokane, Washington, August 9, with seven more events planned across the country. More than 180 people signed up to speak at the Spokane event, including private property advocates and representatives of environmental groups. Washington State Rep. Joel Kretz spoke on behalf of private property owners when he said those rights must be protected from bureaucrats and special interests. "Only the private property owner has anything tangible on the table," Kretz said. Kretz pointed out that millions of dollars have been squandered in recent years on salmon recovery. "We have developed a salmon recovery industry," he said, fueled by electricity ratepayers and "the urban ignorant." The Endangered Species Act came under fire from participants, as well as, other inefficient environmental regulations. Robin Meenach, vice president of the Washington Farm Bureau, noted that any cooperative ventures must be voluntary and that property owners must be compensated if their land is lost to environmental regulation. "Capitalism has served us well, not socialism," she said.
Meeting on Bush Enviro Proposal
Draws Disparate Views
Congress Expands Conservation Tax Incentives
A few years ago, after the Washington Post ran a scathing exposé of The Nature Conservancy's abuses of the conservation easement scheme, some members of Congress got all hot and bothered and threatened to abolish the tax incentives attached to the easements. Well, now all is forgiven and Congress has decided, under pressure from land trust organizations, not only to continue to allow the incentives, but to greatly expand them. The new and improved version, part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, "raises the maximum deduction for donation of a conservation easement from 30% of their adjusted gross income (AGI) in any year to 50%; Allows qualified farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their AGI; and, increases the number of years over which a donor can take deductions from 6 years to 16 years." The new rules apply only to donations made during 2006 and 2007, but the land trust organizations will push to make them permanent. Gary Taylor of the Fish and Wildlife Association, praised the government's generosity. "This expansion of the tool's use dramatically expands the amount of land and water we can save," he said. James L. Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said; "This new conservation easement law is another important step in realizing the President's vision for cooperative conservation."
Conservation Tax Incentives Passed by
Senate
U. S. Invites Mexico to Take Territory in Kansas City
Phyllis Schlafly writes that business interests, aided by the U. S government, are planning to set up a cargo inspection port run by Mexican officials in downtown Kansas City. An e-mail obtained through Missouri's Sunshine law read; "The space [in Kansas City] would need to be designated as Mexican sovereign territory." The project is being spearheaded by a newly-formed nonprofit economic development corporation, Kansas City Smartport, Inc. Smartport's website discloses plans to ship Chinese-made goods from the port of Lazaro Cardenas in southern Mexico up "the evolving trade corridor," (NAFTA Super Highway) to the Kansas City site for cargo inspection. According to Mrs. Schlafly's report, "A key purpose of the project is to take jobs away from U. S. longshoremen in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., who earn $140,000 a year and replace them with Mexican laborers at $10,000 a year. U. S. truck drivers and railroad workers will likewise be replaced by Mexicans." Smartport applied for a $1.5 million grant from the U. S. Economic Development Administration to pay for gamma-ray machines to scan the containers after Mexico refused to pay the cost. The Kansas City City Council has already approved $2.5 million in loans and $600,000 in direct aid to Smartport to help get the project underway. The U. S. State Department must now approve Mexico's invasion of U. S. soil. It has already been approved by U. S. Customs Department.
Shipping Corridor Cuts Heart out of
Heartland
Energy Corridors 3,500 Feet Wide
On July 31, the Western Livestock Journal (WLJ) revealed another government plan that may come as a surprise to many Americans. According to WLJ, "The Energy Policy Act of 2005 charged the secretaries of Energy, Agriculture, Interior, Commerce and Defense to designate corridors for oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission facilities on federal land in the eleven contiguous western states." Corridors 3,500 feet wide are currently under consideration. The proposed Trans-Texas Corridor is only a third that size and includes truck, vehicle, and rail lines with a 200-foot utility right-of-way. Heather Feeny, Bureau of Land Management spokesman, explained that "[T]his 3,500 feet is a working width...[w]e have started with the assumption of this width because of the Energy Policy Act, Sec. 368, which was designed so that more than one project can be located along these right-of-way corridors." Private property owners and ranchers in the path of the corridors are complaining they have been left out of the planning and research phases of the project. Information on the West-Wide Corridor site indicates similar corridors being planned for the rest of the states as well.
Energy Right of Way
Proposed
West-wide
Energy Corridor Programmatic EIS Information Center