Congress, Environment, Politics, Society

Timber! Obama Reverses Himself On Protecting Millions of Acres of Wildness in New Concession To Developers and Drillers

President Obama has made another huge concession to developers and drillers this week. He has abandoned a pledge to restore eligibility for federal wilderness protection to millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was himself viewed as a decidedly anti-environmental Senator before being picked by Obama, announced that millions of acres will no longer be designated as “wild lands.”

As with civil libertarians, environmentalists have long been dismissed by the White House as having no where to go in the next election. Accordingly, Obama continues to rollback on environmental protections such as his radical expansion of coal permits as well as his opening up of pristine areas of the East Coast to oil exploration.

The effort to protect the lands was blocked by Congress but environmentalists wanted the Administration to fight on this ground. Various business groups and conservative members of Congress heralded the President’s move. At risk are some of the most pristine untouched lands left in the country.

Source: Yahoo

112 thoughts on “Timber! Obama Reverses Himself On Protecting Millions of Acres of Wildness in New Concession To Developers and Drillers”

  3. Bdaman,

    US House Democrats accuse producers of using toxic fracking products
    Washington (Platts)–18 Apr 2011
    By Mark Davidson
    http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/8806003

    **********

    Pennsylvania Fracking Spill: Natural Gas Well Blowout Spills Thousands Of Gallons Of Drilling Fluid (VIDEO)
    The Huffington Post
    First Posted: 04/20/11 02:52
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/20/pennsylvania-fracking-spill-gas-blowout-2011_n_851637.html

  5. Bdaman,

    More Reasons to Question Whether Gas is Cleaner than Coal
    by Abrahm Lustgarten
    ProPublica, April 12, 2011
    http://www.propublica.org/article/more-reasons-to-question-whether-gas-is-cleaner-than-coal

    **********

    Meet the families whose lives have been ruined by gas drilling
    AlterNet: Families in Pennsylvania explain how the dash for gas in the US is affecting their way of life
    Nina Berman for AlterNet guardian.co.uk
    Tuesday 12 April 2011
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/12/families-gas-drilling

  6. Bdaman,

    Maybe you’re the one who’s been bamboozled.

    Here are links to articles with information about fracking for natural gas:

    Fracking USA: A Post about the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, Governor Tom Corbett, C. Alan Walker, the Marcellus Shale, Polluted Drinking Water, and the Movie Gasland
    http://jonathanturley.org/2011/04/10/fracking-usa-a-post-about-the-pennsylvania-department-of-community-and-economic-development-governor-tom-corbett-c-alan-walker-the-marcellus-shale-polluted-drinking-water-and-the-movie-gasland/

    **********

    “Fracking” Shale Gas Emissions Far Worse Than Coal For Climate – Cornell Study
    by bdemelle
    Daily Kos, 4/11/2011
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/11/965915/-Fracking-Shale-Gas-Emissions-Far-Worse-Than-Coal-For-ClimateCornell-Study

  8. Gyges, it is what it is.

    What eva ya say it is, what eva ya think it is. It is what it is.

    you’ve been bamboozled

  9. I said greedy, narcissistic, venal and myopic and you spoke up in deflection, “Roco”, so it was a case of ringing the bell and the greedy, narcissistic, venal and myopic dog salivating.

  10. Yeah, like the coal companies are shepherding West Virgina and BP is shepherding the Gulf of Mexico and Massey Energy is shepherding its miners – into oblivion. Or like Georgia Pacific shepherds diverse forests into a giant monoculture unfit for most of the life it could support & highly vulnerable to a single threat that would wipe out the entire monoculture.

    Business in in business for only one goal – to turn a profit. Increasingly in today’s society that means this quarter. Unrestrained business is as evil and destructive as unrestrained government. Individuals cannot stand against corporate power but government can. We need a balance but we currently have corporations and a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. And God helps us because we are well and truly fucked and the corporations don’t care that they are killing us.

  11. “The greedy and narcissistic elements of society cannot distinguish between responsible husbandry and venal myopic exploitation.”

    You must be talking about federal employees. Private companies take good care of their own land. I imagine they do use up government resources because they are held in common and are ostensibly owned by the tax payer. So give the land to the tax payers and let them contract with the private companies.

    You are such a man of the people, I should think you would be all over than proposal.

  12. private companies do tend to husband resources because they own them. the problem comes when they do not own the land. They then have no incentive to take care of it.

    Aristotle spoke of this some 2,500 years ago.

    “For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill; as in families many attendants are often less useful than a few.”

    Politics Book II Part III

    From there it isnt to hard to get to here:

    “Any material element or resource which, in order to become of use or value to men, requires the application of human knowledge and effort, should be private property—by the right of those who apply the knowledge and effort.”

    Therefore it would be better if the federal government sold the land outright than offer leases. That way 2 of the conditions necessary for success are satisfied, namely private property and
    the right to ones labor.

    If you want to be egalitarian about it, then have a lottery and give the land away to as many people as possible. It is theirs anyway as either their ancestors or they have paid taxes for the purchase of the land.

    Give government land to the people and let them sell it or use it for their benefit. Now that’s my kind of communism.

  13. BDAman,

    “As Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar scrambles to explain his wildly exaggerated claims of the coal lease sales from his announcement, the truth is that this mind-boggling announcement…”

    “Energy and climate analysts and Big Green organizations are still staggering around…”

    “President Obama needs to be called out for his less than transparent catering to his long-time billionaire and coal-profiteering friends.”

    That’s sure supportive language, I’m not sure how anyone could construe posting that article on the matter as intended to cause negative feelings towards the President and his administration. A far as I can tell, you either: just posted the first thing you came across (shallow); misrepresenting your intentions and view (disingenuous); or both (shallow and disingenuous).

    Buddha,

    I was hoping someone would notice that set up. Thank you.

  14. A hot time in the old town tonight, let freedom ring, and all that jazz…

    The following is from the link about the Ralph Reed Love Fest, provided by Swarthmore mom):

    “All in all, it’s a veritable Who’s Who of the modern GOP, save for one man. Newt Gingrich, who spoke at the last Faith and Freedom event held in Iowa back in March, is skipping the massive DC event. In between the two Faith And Freedom events, Gingrich has made his run for the White House official, only to see it implode spectacularly after he criticized the House Republican plan to phase out Medicare. Team Gingrich told ABC News the former House Speaker was not skipping Reed’s DC event to avoid more uncomfortable questions about his Medicare stance. Turns out Gingrich had already planned to take some time off from the campaign trail this weekend, his spokesperson told ABC, so he’ll send along a video address instead.

    Sarah Palin — who’s making a huge if confusing splash with her bus tour this week — will also be absent from the festivities, though she’s not one to show at events like this normally.”

  15. Maybe an official proclamation from the governor would help, Blouise… Or with Reed’s “Faith and Freedom” conference on the horizon (thanks for the link, Swarthmore mom), perhaps “the conference” could take it up, so to speak…

  16. a. n. & SwM,

    It has been beautiful here the last three days but that was after a couple of days in the 90’s spent at graduation parties. Sat. is supposed to be sweltering again.

    The farmers around here are wringing their hands in frustration … something about “out of 54 days, only 3 days were free of hard rain”

  17. SM, Unseasonably warm where I’m living. Cool the past couple of days, but we’ve hit 90 degrees already, which is unusual…

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