If you want a hiking boots on the ground perspective of environmental politics in the western US, take a look at the blossoming Ralph Maughan blog. However, be warned that the emphasis of the blog is on the environment, not party glorification. Unfortunately, this time it's not looking good for the Nevada Senate Delegation, one of whom is the Senate Democratic Leader.
..more below..
http://wolves.wordpress.com/...
by “KT” on the Maughan blog:
Chopping Up the West, County By County
Harry Reid and John Ensign’s White Pine Rider, with all of its land privatization schemes, was attached to the “Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006”.
http://www.rules.house.gov/...
p. 264
The “White Pine County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act” ... includes: Rapid sale of 45,000 acres of BLM in White Pine County.
(Note: This was preceded by the Reid and Ensign Lincoln County Bill that authorized selling off around 100,000 acres of BLM land to the south in the same Bill that legislated the water pipelines rights-of-way for Las Vegas in both Lincoln and White Pine counties).
Per the post, this bill coupled with the earlier "Lincoln County Bill" generates proceeds from public land sales that go to, amongst other things:
~Pipelines and wells that will de-water the aquifers that underlie wilderness areas in order to hydrate Las Vegas.
~Authorization to the Secretaries of State and Interior so that "Millions of dollars are going to be handed over to .. local group to chop, chain, chip, burn, “masticate”, altering pinyon-juniper and sagebrush habitats across 12 million acres – to benefit of the public lands cattle and sheep industry.
~Off Road Vehicle Recreation Trails
The rider is one complex network of trade-offs but the bottom line is extraction wins big over nature. Really big. The Senators from Nevada, Republican and Democrat, have put their state's resources under seige and managed to trade away several longstanding environmental legal principles at the same time. A combined 145,000 acres of public land will be sold so that up to 12 million acres can be assaulted further by "local managment" whose intention is to plant non-native grass species ~in the desert~ in order to graze cattle and sheep ~in the desert~. That's just nuts.
This rider is particularly nasty because it exempts itself from federal water law directly impacting wilderness areas in favor of Las Vegas growth and because it uses Bush's twisted fire prevention logic (read that as fear mongering) to promote increased cattle ranching on public lands - a recipe for extreme long-term damage to the fragile desert environment. I find it particularly appalling that the previously defined meaning of wilderness is creeping towards meaningless because of this rider. Land management is shifted to state interests and development and flyovers are allowed. And just what exactly is a wilderness with no water rights? ~in a desert? There are plenty of folks complaining about the political pandering and lobbyist licking happening in the Bush EPA and Interior. It's stunning to see this piece of work come from Harry Reid, the Democratic Leader in the Senate.
Iraq may be the issue of the day, but global warming is not that far behind it. Democrats are widely perceived as the greener of the two major parties, but the Democratic Leader in the Senate just gave that image a clear cut.
Kudos to Senator Reid for threading the political needle by working with a Republican to create this monstrosity and then sneaking it onto the last gasp spending bill of the prior Republican dominated Congress. That's some fine politicking there. But politicking is the bane of environmentals. Senators Reid has risked putting a big chill on support from environmentalists with this rider. I suspect Reid will stay quiet and hope we chalk it up as the last act of that prior bad Repub Congress. However, this one is Reid's shameful doing.