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PUBLIC LANDS: President promises more protections
Manuel Quiñones and Phil Taylor, E&E reporters
Published: Wednesday, January 29, 2014
President Obama last night thrilled conservation advocates by stating his intention to use executive authority to protect more lands from resource development.
During his State of the Union address, the president, like numerous times before, touted the country's notable increases in energy production. But he also made a strong conservation pledge.
"My administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and job growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water and our communities," Obama said. "And while we're at it, I'll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations."
That line was a direct indication that Obama is not afraid to use the Antiquities Act and other powers to put certain lands off-limits to development.
The president's statement brought strong applause from conservationist lawmakers as well as Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, though it raised fears among many Republicans.
"It's great," said Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. He said executive conservation actions are necessary "given the reluctance on the Republicans to protect another acre of our public lands for future generations."
Just last week, more than 100 Democrats, led by DeFazio and Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, called on the Obama administration to bypass Congress to protect lands.
The president's powers include designating national monuments under the Antiquities Act. The Bureau of Land Management also has broad authority to set aside parts of its 250-million-acre estate, at least on a temporary basis.
The president said that even though he wants to promote more clean energy development on public land, some areas are just not appropriate.
"That is why the President will use his authority to protect some of the places that Americans love most," said a White House fact sheet, "even as we continue to develop energy resources elsewhere."
Grijalva said he was ready to work with DeFazio on making conservation recommendations to the White House. "I'm going to start by looking at existing legislation that's been filed and is going nowhere and maybe start from that premise," Grijalva said.
Last night marked the first time the president specifically addressed land and water conservation in a State of the Union speech. Conservationists are lobbying him do so and to declare more national monuments, wildlife refuges and conservation areas in his second term.
'Conservationist-in-chief'
In addition to failing to pass comprehensive climate change legislation, Congress has not enhanced protections for a single acre of federal lands since the 111th Congress. Obama has now pledged to address both issues with his pen.
"Obama has taken his place in a long line of presidents who have used the bully pulpit to drive needed action to protect our lands, waters and way of life for our children and grandchildren," said Matt Lee-Ashley, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former Interior Department aide during Obama's first term.
Land and water conservation had been conspicuously absent from Obama's first five State of the Union addresses, as CAP noted last week, despite prominent mentions having been made by numerous presidents, including Republicans George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan (Greenwire, Jan. 24).
Presidents historically have designated most of their national monuments in their second terms, including President Clinton, who designated roughly 18 national monuments covering well over a million acres before leaving office in 2001.
Green groups have pushed Obama to designate large monuments in his second term, including in southern New Mexico, central Idaho and Colorado.
Obama has designated nine national monuments so far, including in 2013 the 243,000-acre Rio Grande del Norte monument in New Mexico.
Jewell foreshadowed the president's conservation pledge in a speech three months ago at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where she promised Obama would flex his Antiquities Act authorities if Congress failed to act (E&ENews PM, Oct. 31, 2013).
Jewell was in Las Cruces, N.M., last week with Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, where she heard from community members who have proposed that Obama declare a 500,000-acre monument in the Organ Mountains and on surrounding BLM lands.
"We are heartened that President Obama made a strong case for conservation in his speech," said Brian O'Donnell, executive director of the Conservation Lands Foundation, who was in Las Cruces for Jewell's listening session. "With Congress unable to make progress, President Obama is the 'conservationist-in-chief.'"
Critics alarmed
Critics, however, expressed alarm at Obama's pledge. They have for years been warning the president against what they see as unilateral land decisions.
"He should work with consensus. He should work with Congress. Bill Clinton worked with Congress. I don't know why Barack Obama can't," said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, "and work with the local stakeholders, the governors, the state legislators, the country commissioners. Things are more successful in this country if you have consensus and collaboration. And he needs to learn that."
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the Public Lands Subcommittee, said the country's energy growth has had little to do with White House policies, a well-worn argument against the president.
And when it comes to land conservation, Bishop said, "We need to look no further than Kane and Garfield County, Utah, to see how damaging it can be to communities when the president comes in and locks up land as a national monument."
In Bishop's view, national monument declarations and other actions to protect lands have everything to do with pressure from interest groups.
"Communities across the West live in constant fear of unilateral monument declarations," Bishop added. "This is unfair and undemocratic, and I urge the president to abandon these scare tactics and work collaboratively with Congress."
Grijalva said he envisioned Obama protecting areas "where you don't have to reinvent the wheel and you have community buy-in and they're good."
And Lee-Ashley of CAP said, "With this Congress on track to not protect a single acre of national parks or wilderness, the president is right to use his powers to set aside places that local communities want protected for outdoor recreation and their quality of life."
Reporter Nick Juliano contributed.
