Liberty
Matters News Service
September 27, 2006
Unite to Fight
The landowners conference set in Salt Lake City, Utah, November 10th-11th, is packed with people from across America who are stopping the erosion of property rights in their community. "Our goal is to teach attendees how to move beyond the rallies and learn how to set effective strategies that win the war locally," commented conference organizer, Margaret Byfield. Day one features a line up of great speakers covering key national issues such as the North American Union and NAFTA Super Highway, Conservation Easements, and National Heritage Areas, and then moves into a series of presentations from landowners who are fighting strategic battles in their communities, and are winning. Day two is a roll up your sleeves session run by the movement's best strategist, Fred Kelly Grant. Grant will show how anyone willing to defend their property rights can learn to fight smart and keep the anti-property rights programs out of their community. "The conference agenda reflects our belief that while Congress continues to ignore the big issues affecting America's landowners, they are hard pressed to beat us at home. We are winning the war in communities across the nation by teaching people how to protect their land, home, and family." For more information go to www.stewards.us.
Federal Judge Re-Instates Clinton Roadless Rules
U. S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. LaPorte, of San Francisco, has reinstated former President Clinton's 2001 Roadless Rules that prohibited building new roads in nearly 50 million acres of the national forests. The decision was in response to a lawsuit by The Wilderness Society and other environmental groups to overturn the Bush administration's 2004 policy of state-by state forest management. Judge LaPorte said the Forest Service had failed to abide by the National Environmental Policy Act, (NEPA) that requires agencies to thoroughly analyze proposed actions. Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary, David P. Tenny said working with the individual states was "more effective in managing roadless areas properly than a sweeping approach that deals with all areas at one time." Jim Caswell, administrator of the Idaho Office of Species Conservation, said the federal government will probably appeal. "This is not, as some people have described it, over," he said.
Judge Voids Bush Policy on National
Forest Roads
Judge Thwarts Idaho's
Plan for Roadless Areas
DOI Faces Congressional Investigation
Senate and House lawmakers are calling for hearings into accusations of malfeasance at the Department of Interior (DOI) in the wake of a critical report by the department's inspector general. Earl Devany told the House Committee on Government Reform that DOI personnel were guilty of serious ethics violations. "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior," Devany said. The most glaring example of "managerial irresponsibility" occurred during the last year of the Clinton administration when DOI officials failed to include contract language requiring oil companies to pay royalties from their offshore leases. Bureaucratic idiocy, not criminal intent, according to Devany, has cost taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion. Department officials compounded their stupidity with cover-up documents that Devany cited as examples of "defending the indefensible." Democrats want the contracts re-negotiated but the Bush administration and Senate leaders say that violates the sanctity of a contract. DOI's new Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, has promised to look into any ethics violations.
Oily Mess Ahead for Pombo
Wyden Turns Up Heat on Interior Secretary
Three Mousekateers Join Hands for Ocean Health
The governors of Oregon, Washington and California want to manage the oceans as one great ecosystem that knows no political boundaries. The West Coast Governor's Agreement on Ocean Health asks the federal government to fund the effort. The threesome's campaign is a response to reports by the Pew Oceans Commission and the U. S. Commission on Ocean Policy, in 2003 and 2004, respectively that said the oceans are under siege from a variety of man-made threats, including global warming. They want more money to combat non-point source pollution from agriculture runoff that is blamed for "dead zones" along the coast. The governors want to "[S]end a joint message to the president and Congress reinforcing our opposition to oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development off our coasts."
In Our View: Protecting our
Coast
3 States to Work on Pacific Ocean
health
That Handy ESA
Environmental activists have seized on the supposed presence of the red wolf to thwart the Navy's plans to build a new landing field in North Carolina. The Navy wants to buy 30,000 acres in an area that includes part of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the northeastern section of the state. The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing several environmental groups, is suing to stop the project, charging it would "jeopardize the existence and recovery of the red wolf." Before the convenient appearance of the red wolves, environmentalists sued the Navy in 2004, claiming the landing field would harm wintering snow geese and tundra swans. A federal court ruled the Navy's original Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was "inadequate" and ordered it to issue a new and improved version. Navy officials will release the new EIS this fall and will then hold public hearings in the affected counties.
Eco-activists use Red Wolf
Sightings as Obstacle to Navy Airfield