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Senator Jim DeMint vs White House ‘Land Grab’ for National Parks

by Albert Milliron | March 4, 2010 at 01:04 pm

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Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) takes to the Senate floor to discuss a leaked document that says the President intends to take large tracks of land and claim them as Parks Service monuments. By doing so the tracks of land will not be able to be used for energy exploration, forestry, ranching or mining.

President Clinton claimed 5.9 million acres of the land for national monuments without going through congressional legislation during his tenure. Much of the land was restricted from public use because the Parks Service had suffered budged cuts.

In fact the Parks Service is scheduled to close several National Parks because of funding problems. In addition, One of the monuments, Grande Staircase-Escalante in Utah, produced 65,000 barrels of oil per year.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to stop President Obama from seizing more public land by designating them as "monuments." Such action would immediately halt use of the lands for mining, forestry, ranching activities, and energy development which would negatively affect employment and local tax bases. Following his speech, the Democrat majority voted against the amendment, 58-38.

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Hugh Askew

at 13:38 on March 4th, 2010

Nice article!

Obama devious? Who woulda thunk it, eh?

YankeeJim

at 05:47 on March 5th, 2010

Strategic

YankeeJim

at 05:45 on March 5th, 2010

The great state of South Carolina, the location of the start of the Civil War, and a place that never got over it should become a monument to stupidity.