Congress's Assault on Public Lands Surged During Trump's First Year
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Under Siege Congress’s Assault on Public Lands Surged During Trump’s First Year Young murkowski Heller Flake Barrasso amodei Paulo Lopes • Center for Biological Diversity • February 2018 Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Discussion 2 Legislative Attacks in the 115th Congress 3 Top Public Land Enemies in the 115th Congress 5 Conclusion 8 Endnotes 9 Appendix 1 10 Appendix 2 12 Cover photo of Bears Ears National Monument courtesy Bob Wick / BLM President Donald Trump signing an executive order Executive Summary The stakes for America’s public lands have never been higher. Congressional attacks on lands and oceans held in trust for all Americans reached a fever pitch in 2017 and don’t show any signs of letting up. Public lands are some of the nation’s most spectacular places, providing respite and recreation for millions, critical wildlife habitat, clean air and water. For this report we reviewed all of the bills introduced by the 115th Congress between Jan. 3, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017 — the first year of the Trump administration. Lawmakers hostile to public lands and beholden to corporate interests clearly see the Trump administration as a golden opportunity to seize, dismantle, destroy or privatize America’s public lands and hand control to private industry to mine, drill, log and bulldoze. Our key findings: • More than 120 bills were introduced to strip protections from national monuments, parks, wildlife refuges, national forest and ocean sanctuaries. That’s over a 25 percent increase during the same period of the 114th Congress. • Alaska’s congressional delegation, led by Republican Rep. Don Young and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, introduced more than 25 bills, or 20 percent of all public lands attacks, including bills to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and privatize more than 175,000 acres (273 square miles). • More than 100 bills would eliminate or weaken environmental laws and regulations on public lands. • More than 35 bills would take federal lands out of the public’s hands. • Overall, the most common legislative assault were bills to keep the public from knowing about environmental and public health threats from fracking, drilling, mining and logging. This report is a follow-up to the Center for Biological Diversity’s Public Lands Enemies report, published in March 2017, which covered public lands attacks in the 112th, 113th and 114th congressional sessions.1 Similar to the lawmakers covered in that report’s findings, the lawmakers leading the latest assault on public lands share not just ideology, but many of the same corporate donors. Together the top six 2017 Public Lands Enemies collected more than $3 million from fossil fuel and logging interests, including Chevron, Duke Energy, Exxon Mobil, Murray Energy and PG&E. 1 Bears Ears National Monument courtesy Bob Wick / BLM Discussion America’s public lands span more than 600 million acres and include some of the most beloved places in America, from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Grand Canyon, from the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the vast Sagebrush Sea in the interior West. Publicly owned ocean waters cover nearly 4.5 million square miles,2 including ancient Pacific coral reefs and vast undersea volcanos. These iconic lands and waters are all held in trust by the federal government for the benefit of current and future generations of Americans. Tens of millions of Americans visit public lands each year along with millions of tourists from around the world. Public lands provide unparalleled opportunities for recreation and solitude. As John Muir said, “In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”3 Publicly owned forests, grasslands, rivers and oceans provide numerous benefits, including clean water and air, and habitat for countless species of wildlife. Sponsors of these anti-public lands bills are out of touch with the vast majority of voters. More than 90 percent of Americans from both political parties believe that supporting, protecting and maintaining forests, national parks, national monuments and other public lands and waters is important.4 Criteria for Identifying Public Lands Attacks This report reviewed all federal legislation introduced from Jan. 3 to Dec. 31, 2017. For legislation to be categorized as an attack on public lands, it must include at least one of four criteria: 1. No More National Monuments or Wildlife Refuges: Legislative provisions that would strip or reduce the authority of future presidents to designate national monuments. This category also includes proposals to limit presidential authority to designate new national wildlife refuges or national marine sanctuaries. 2. Weakening Federal Protections: Legislative provisions that would eliminate or weaken federal environmental laws and regulations that safeguard public lands and oceans. 3. Land Seizures: Legislative provisions that would authorize handing over or selling America’s public lands to states and/or private interests for industrialization and development. 4. Private/State Control of Public Lands: Legislative provisions that would give management and operational authority to private or state interests. 2 Clearcut section of Tongass National Forest by Alan Wu, CC-BY-SA Legislative Attacks in the 115th Congress No More National Monuments or Wildlife Refuges: Twelve bills were introduced to undermine presidential authority to designate national monuments. This is up nine percent compared to the first year of the 114th Congress. The congressional delegations from Alaska and Utah led the attacks on national monuments, with each delegation introducing three bills. Dishonorable Mentions • S. 33, introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and companion bill H.R. 2284, introduced by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), would dramatically restrict the designation of new national monuments by requiring both congressional and state approval. • H.R. 3990, introduced by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), would invalidate the Antiquities Act by limiting new national monuments to 85,000 acres (132 square miles) and requiring county, state and gubernatorial approval for all but the smallest monuments. It also gives veto power to private landowners whose land borders proposed monument boundaries and bans any new marine national monuments. Weakening Federal Protections: Lawmakers introduced 101 bills to eliminate or weaken environmental laws and regulations across our public landscapes. This is up 46 percent compared to the first year of the 114th Congress. One of the most prevalent attacks among these bills is increased logging across the broad public landscapes, playing on the public’s fear of wildfires, while doing nothing to protect communities. Dishonorable Mentions • S. 879, introduced by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), would significantly ramp up damaging logging, threaten endangered species and restrict citizen access to courts when the government fails to follow the law to protect national forests and wildlife. In addition, the bill excludes environmental analysis and public disclosure of harms and drastically limits public input on logging projects up to 15,000 acres (23 square miles). • H.R. 2936, introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), would eliminate Endangered Species Act requirements that the U.S. Forest Service ensure logging projects do not harm endangered wildlife and plants. It would also allow logging projects on up to 30,000 acres (46 square miles) without meaningful public involvement, scientific evaluation or public disclosure of harms. 3 Canada lynx are threatened by an open pit copper mine proposed by H.R. 3115. Photo by Juliana Luz. CC-BY-NC Land Seizure: Lawmakers introduced 39 bills to take federal lands out of public hands. This is up 39 percent compared to the first year of the 114th Congress. The congressional delegation from Alaska led the land seizure attacks with over a dozen bills, which would amount to seizing over 2.5 million acres of public land. Dishonorable Mentions • S. 1481, introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would give away more than 175,000 acres (273 square miles) of public lands in Alaska to private corporations. It would hand over or trade more than 130,000 acres (180 square miles) of the Tongass National Forest — the nation’s largest national forest — to private timber corporations. Another 50,000 acres (78 square miles) of national wildlife refuge lands would be opened to privatization. • H.R. 3115, introduced by Rep. Richard Nolan (D-Minn.), would exchange public land to facilitate an open-pit copper mine, which would destroy 1,000 acres of wetlands and more than 1,700 acres of critical wildlife habitat in northern Minnesota’s Superior National Forest. Private/State Control of Public Lands: Thirteen bills have been introduced that would hand control over of public lands to states. This is up eight percent compared to the first year of the 114th Congress. Over half of these attacks pertain to fossil fuel development, such as fracking. Dishonorable mentions • S. 335, introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and companion bill H.R. 3565, introduced by Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), would put states in charge of overseeing drilling, fracking and coal mining on public lands. Inhofe’s Federal Land Freedom Act is designed to aggressively increase drilling and fracking on public lands. In his own words, “One of the best ways to do this is to simply hand power over to the states. .”5 State permitting and leasing of publicly owned fossil fuels would not be subject to court challenge by citizens for harm to water, wildlife and communities, public disclosure of harms under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or the Endangered Species Act (ESA). • S. 334, introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and companion bill H.R. 928, introduced by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), would put states in charge of overseeing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands and would similarly exempt fracking from bedrock environmental laws including NEPA and the ESA. These bills would cut the public out of permitting and regulatory process, and silence the voice of the American people.