Public Lands Shouldn’t Have a Price Tag on Them

After an all-day markup,the House Committee on Natural Resources advanced its portion of the Republican reconciliation package in a vote in the dead of night.

Committee members moved forward the controversial reconciliation text, which includes greatly expanding extractive industry on public lands and waters across the United States. Among other provisions, the GOP package seeks to vastly increase on- and offshore drilling, along with fast tracking mining projects like the proposed Twin Metals mine in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, one of the last remaining true wilderness areas in the country.

Committee members also approved an amendment from Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) that would begin the process of privatizing public lands in the West. The amendment calls for the sale of areas of public land in Nevada and Utah to private developers and industry. Notably, Clark County, Nevada’s most populous county, opposed the measure.

The amendment is notable, as some congressional Republicans have identified selling off public lands as one option to pay for extending Donald Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires. In a vote last month, a majority of senators rejected a measure that would have prevented the sell-off.

In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:

“Public lands shouldn’t have a price tag on them. But Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are working like mad to hand over our public lands to billionaires and corporate polluters to drill, mine, and log with the bare minimum oversight or accountability. These lands belong to all Americans, they shouldn’t be given away to pad corporate bottom lines. Congressional Republicans have made it clear that this is their plan, and our public lands, our clean air and water, critical habitat, and our communities will be threatened by unchecked industrial development. The American people will not tolerate it.”