Friday, November 27, 2015

Dianne Feinstein’s Million-Acre Land Grab Falters



Dianne Feinstein’s Million-Acre Land Grab Falters
by Chriss W. Street 27 Nov 2015Newport Beach, CA
Three months after Breitbart News and others outed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 0’s (D-CA) backdoor effort to freeze development on over one million acres of California dessert by having President Obama declare the area subject to the Antiquities Act of 1906, her efforts are going down in flames as Congressional Republicans are moving to ban the Antiquities designation.

Feinstein’s seven-year quest to convince “ongress to sequester over 1560 square miles of the Mojave Desert into three new national monuments under her proposed ‘Desert Conservation and Recreation Act” has gone nowhere. Feinstein has argued that the area she wants designated as ‘Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and Castle Mountains’ is home to mountain lions, the California desert tortoise and bighorn sheep. But the real effort is to ban off-roaders, hunters and miners.

The Senator had faced opposition from an unusual coalition of sustainable energy developers, wilderness advocates, off-road vehicle users, military bases, energy companies and American Indian tribes. By trying to circumvent Congress through artificially tying up the property with a phony search for non-existent artifacts, she has incensed Republicans and upset many Democrats, who worry about future Presidential actions.
U.S.

Rep. Paul Cook (R-CA) 48%, whose district covers the area Feinstein wants restricted, complained at a Congressional hearing in September that the Antiquities Act “sets in motion a Washington-based management plan that can sharply curtail recreational and economic activities. I’m deeply concerned that outreach efforts to the public have been hasty and inadequate.”

Cook, a retired U.S. Marine Colonel who won a Bronze Star and has two Purple Hearts from combat duty in the Vietnam War, has said that when he heard about Feinstein’s backdoor efforts, his number one goal was to stop Presidential action.

Cook is a staunch military supporter and sits on the powerful Armed Services, Veterans,’ and Foreign Services Committees. The military is a substantial user of the terrain that Feinstein wants walled off. Because the area contains the remnants of General George Patton’s World War II training camps, national security interests have been lobbying Cook to lead the opposition against Feinstein’s Congressional end run.

The California Chamber of Commerce and the California Taxpayers Association both oppose the Antiquities designation and have given Cook perfect 100 percent ratings for each year since he was first elected in 2007. They have lobbied the congressman to oppose any executive order by President Barack Obama regarding the area.

On October 1, 2015, Congressman Cook introduced HR 3668, the California Minerals, Off-Road Recreation, and Conservation Act (CMORCA). He described the bill as “a balanced approach to protecting, managing, and using our desert and forest areas in San Bernardino and Inyo Counties.” But the bill also bans designating the area under the Antiquities Act.

Cook’s bill creates would create a National Monument, but also opens 100,000 acres to mining, and designates Johnson Valley and five more off-highway vehicle areas as “National OHV recreation areas.”

The new designation would ban commercial development in those areas if the Secretary of the Interior determines the development is incompatible with the purpose of the bill. But the bill sets up the opportunity for development to be approved in a future Republican administration.

Although Senator Feinstein has continually claimed that desert residents are “overwhelmingly in favor” of the three monument designations she is pushing for, the City of Twentynine Palms, the City of Banning, and the San Gorgonio Pass Regional Water Alliance quickly signed on as supporters of Rep. Cook’s CMORCA.

Environmentalists have been shocked by the rising support for the CMORCA bill, which they call part of a a “radical anti-public-lands agenda” by House Natural Resources Committee Republicans, representing a “neo-sagebrush rebellion that appears to be emerging in certain Western states.”

The Rep. Cook’s California Minerals, Off-Road Recreation, and Conservation Act is expected to have its first House Natural Resources Committee hearing as early as December 9.

Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein is a U.S. Senate senator, the chair for the Senate Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, and married to Richard C. Blum.

Note: Richard C. Blum is married to Senator Dianne Feinstein, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a governing council member for the Wilderness Society.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), the Climate Reality Project, the Center for American Progress, the Urban Institute (think tank), the New America Foundation (think tank), and the Economic Policy Institute (think tank).
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a supporter for the Center for American Progress, and is Jonathan Soros’s father.
Crandall C. Bowles is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a governing council member for the Wilderness Society, and married to Erskine B. Bowles.
George T. Frampton Jr. is a governing council member for the Wilderness Society, was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior, the chairman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Albert A. Gore Jr was his attorney.
Bureau of Land Management is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Bureau of Indian Affairs is a bureau for the .S. Department of the Interior.
Nancy Sutley is the chair for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the deputy secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency, and a special assistant to the administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Carol M. Browner was an administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a director at the Climate Reality Project, and is a senior fellow, director at the Center for American Progress.
Albert A. Gore Jr. is the chairman for the Climate Reality Project, and was George T. Frampton Jr’s attorney.
Theodore Roosevelt IV is a director at the Climate Reality Project, and a governing council member for the Wilderness Society.
Hansjorg Wyss is a governing council member for the Wilderness Society, and a director at the Center for American Progress.
Erskine B. Bowles is married to Crandall C. Bowles, a trustee at the Urban Institute (think tank), a director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and a co-chair for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget was housed at the New America Foundation (think tank), and is a paid for staff by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
Jonathan Soros is a director at the New America Foundation (think tank), and George Soros’s son.
Paul Ryan is a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a member & speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives.
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute (think tank).
Ann M. Fudge is a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Richard C. Blum is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a governing council member for the Wilderness Society, and married to Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Dianne Feinstein is married to Richard C. Blum, a U.S. Senate senator, and the chair for the Senate Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee.
Charles W. Duncan Jr. was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy.
DOE loan program is a loan program for the U.S. Department of Energy, and provided loan guarantee for the Mojave Solar Project.
Feinstein: Don't Spoil Our Desert With Solar Panels
Published March 21, 2009
Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

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