Bears Ears, PLI controversies show Congress must stop executive land grabs

October 8, 2016

Obama’s legacy is shutting off land to free use by American citizens has hurt economic development on land and sea, and the American people don’t get a say, it is time for Congress to put checks on this Act to stop Obama – or any other president – from seizing land away from the American people.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT OBAMA WAS DONE…HE GRABS MORE LAND

Unless you live in Utah, you probably don’t know about the 1.9 million acres the president and some environmentalists want to federalize, against the wishes of every member of Utah’s congressional delegation and many Utahans. Some of whom try to driver armed ATV’s through public land in protest.

The land at stake includes the Bears Ears region, which is home to several Native American burial sites. For 80 years, how to best preserve this land, but also make sure it is not shut off to all economic development has been a sore topic. Utah’s elected representatives devised a plan called the Utah Public Land Initiative Act (PLI) – sponsored by Reps. Bob Bishop (D, 67%) and Jason Chaffetz (C, 78%) – to make sure that the land that should be preserved is preserved, and the land that should remain open stays open.

The PLI will also allow local entities to maintain some land that has been seized by the federal government already and localize energy development.

But environmentalists aren’t happy that the PLI would allow some land to be open to economic development. These environmentalists want President Obama to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to lock up the 1.9 million acres now.

“I think the state, from top to bottom, would become absolutely unglued,” said Rep. Chaffetz, per The Atlantic.

Chaffetz’s biggest objection to Obama federalizing Bears Ears with a stroke of the pen is that it gives Obama a free pass to make his monument proclamation without concern for electoral backlash.

And President Obama has not been afraid to claim land under the Antiquities Act, which gives the president pretty much unlimited authority to federalize American land and water, Obama has seized more land for the federal government than any other president – a combined over 548 million acres of American land and water. In just the past month alone, he locked up over half a million miles off the coast of Hawaii, and 5,000 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Why? because of climate change.

The debate in Congress right now is whether to pursue voting on the PLI in the lame-duck session after the November elections. According to The Atlantic, Congressman Chaffetz is concerned that by moving the PLI through Congress, President Obama will use the Antiquities Act to lock up Bears Ears as a retaliatory measure before the PLI is passed.

When Conservative Review asked Sen. Mike Lee’s [(R-Utah, (A, 100%)] office if he shared Chaffetz’s concern, his spokesman simply said, “Sen. Lee fully supports PLI and believes its passage is the best way to stop Antiquities Act designation.”

Even if Congress is successful in passing the PLI, it is time for Congress to check the president’s practically unlimited authority to federalize land and water under the Antiquities Act. Under the law, the only limits on the authority were imposed by Congress in 1950 after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Jackson Hole, WY., federal land in 1943, and after President Jimmy Carter federalized over 50 million acres in Alaska, but the president’s power is only limited to those two states.

Reagancoalition.com

*Free Range Report*

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Comments

Michael Nielson Lyman says:

October 12, 2016 at 5:04 am

I’ve been without the internet for a while due to moving into a new home, so its great to see that the Petroglyph is keeping the Bears Ears Monument proposal in the public eye. With that said I just have to ask. Why would Congress try at this late date in time to enact any balance, let alone checks, when they’ve cowered in the corner with their tails between their legs for the last eight years? They are spineless and its to late to grow one. And speaking of gutless wonders, Obama is the first person that comes to my mind. You never hear a word of response from him one way or the other about this Bears Ears issue, or from Sally Jewell either. The only way things will change is if enough people decide they are sick and tired of living under a dictatorship and then do something about it. The Bundy’s tried and they are rotting in jail. LaVoy Finicum tried, and he was murdered by despicable cowards .I don’t pretend by any stretch of the imagination to have the soloution to the mess we Americans have gotten ourselves into, but I do know this much. I will never ever accept the Bears Ears or the surrounding 1.9 million acres in San Juan County being stold away and then locked up as so much fodder. In the mean time I’ll get up tomorrow and knock out another 10, 11 hour day at work so as to keep food on the table. This is the greatest country on the face of the earth. Let’s not be run roughshod over by those who don’t believe that. Michael Nielson Lyman.