Confusion at the Canyon: Administration Engaging in the Same Potentially Illegal Action as Bush

[Judi Lynn]

Source: AScribe

Wed May 6 11:52:52 2009 Pacific Time

Confusion at the Canyon: Administration Engaging in the Same Potentially Illegal Action as Bush

WASHINGTON, May 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- The U.S. Department of the Interior last week authorized mining for uranium on federal land near Grand Canyon National Park in an apparent violation of a Congressional resolution passed last June that declared more than 1 million acres around the Park off-limits to new mining activity.

Documents from the department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) obtained by the Grand Canyon Trust show that on April 27, BLM listed as "Operations authorized" applications for exploratory drilling by a mining company known as Quaterra Alaska.

~snip~
Without decisive action by the Obama administration to halt mining activities near the Grand Canyon, the Interior department's rubber- stamping of Quaterra's application could trigger a dramatic increase in mining in close proximity to pristine national park lands and the precious Colorado River, which supplies drinking water to 25 million Americans

"We were surprised to see that BLM appears to have approved drilling operations near the Canyon in violation of Congressional action," said Dusty Horwitt, senior analyst at Environmental Working Group. "Secretary Salazar should act today to put these lands off-limits to mining activity to protect the Canyon and the Colorado River."


Read more: http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20090506.113923&time=11

[truedelphi]

1. Salazar is busy un-endangering Endangered Species

Such that a wolf species will be extinct in ten months.

That's important work ya know.

Cannot interfere with that important job.

Gotta allow species to be eliminated. No time to enforce pesky rules anbout mining on acreage that Congress declared sacred.

It's a matter of priorities. Who cares if some pesky rule is being followed or not? No one at Treasury or the Fed is following any pesky rules - those were all eliminated and stayed by Bush, and were such great deregulation actions that the pesky rules have remained eliminated! "No regulation" is the hallmark of a free society, ya know.

<Do I need the sarcasm icon, or are we clear?>

[jdlh8894]

2. Gotta allow species to be eliminated

Evolution anyone?

[Stellabella]

3. Man's activities have altered the evolutionary process.

For instance, there are more people now with poor sight because we have eye doctors and corrective lenses. Those people would not have survived thousands of years ago, but technology has changed that.

I understand that 99% of all species every alive on earth are extinct, but pollution, overhunting, and habitat loss due to development aren't evolution. If a species is in danger of becoming extinct because of our activity, we need to do whatever we can to fix it.

[truedelphi]

8. Very much ageed - I am living in a rural area that is quickly being converted

From gorgeous forested areas and little private family dairy farms to massive vineyards.
This activity causes a loss of 15% to the deer population each year. Simply no habitat.

And when the deer go, so do the badgers, skunks, rabbits, coons, snakes, frogs, birds,
and coyotes and foxes. It is really heart breaking. The new vineyard owners do not even plant hedge rows or have brush separating say seventy five sq acres from the next seventy five acres. Instead, you can actually find areas that are one mile by one mile of nothing but grape vines. So heavily pesticided that you rarely even see a single bird.

[Stellabella]

12. It's really sad. And most people don't realize that human beings are

affected too. That's the whole point of the environmental movement. It isn't just to 'save some birds'. Whatever kills off other species is going to kill us too, just more slowly. Perhaps.

[truedelphi]

13. I have already been contacted by someone who

Told me that a former friend of theirs, a woman lawyer, was hired by the County to look into whether the pesticides from the vineyards are going into the creeks and then into Clear Lake.

Supposedly this lawyer has been bought and paid for. It means that our drinking water will not be useable in the near future.

[elleng]

6. Hopefully, Salazar will quickly learn how screwed up is Interior.

I suspect its the MOST ABYSMALLY MESSED UP agency.

[MasonJar]

4. Why did Obama choose so many losers for his Cabinet? I am disgusted with Obama on many

fronts, and he is our only hope right now. He chose that Westerner Salazar to lead the Interior. Anyone should know how the West feels about animals and the environment. Salazar, and by extension Obama, has taken the Yellowstone and Rocky Mt. wolves off the endangered species list, an action even the environmental nightmare GWB never did (even though, according to Salazar's spokesman at Interior who answered when I called to blow carbon dioxide fumes on them, the wolves allegedly recovered in 2002) and yet it only took the O administration 3 months to reverse the protection. They are also not standing firm on wild horses and burros. Hence I am hardly surprised that they are not leading the charge to reverse this Grand Canyon debacle. It seems Obama is too busy going forward to investigate/prosecute Bush/Cheney, but he is not too busy to continue their policies in the most officious ways. It appears that selecting Geithner and Salazar and several others was purposeful and in line with Obama's own policy direction. That is the answer I guess to my original question.

[TwilightZone]

5. "Anyone should know how the West feels about animals and the environment."

Haven't spent much time in Colorado, have you? You can't walk ten feet without bumping into a conservationist in some parts of Colorado.

[Hotler]

10. Is that a problem?

[TwilightZone]

11. Of course not.

Did you read the post I replied to? My objection was to the ridiculous stereotyping contained within.

Or do you agree that those nasty "Westerners" don't care about the environment? What a crock.

[Vidar]

9. Great post. I entirely agree.

[ima_sinnic]

7. so apparently environmental issues never really were important to Obama

I mean--Salazar?

thanks for nothing. the only "change" is fewer species in the world than when bush left office, and not because of any natural process of evolution.

[Badgerman]

14. radioactive debris in the Colorado river is okay, if it creates jobs and votes! n/t