I wish I had better news to report, but we need your help again. And we’ll need it more in what’s going to be a long, hot, unpleasant summer for everyone.
On the front burner: we need your help IMMEDIATELY to:
- Defeat the nomination of anti-public lands advocate Steve Pearce as director of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who is facing a full vote in the U.S. Senate as early as this Monday, May 11th.
- Stop the use of the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, in the Senate to undo the management plan of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by the Utah congressional delegation, led by reprehensible anti-public lands Senator Mike Lee, who wants to undo the very idea of public lands held in trust for the public.
The basic ask is simple. Call your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on Steve Pearce as BLM director, and tell them to vote NO on the CRA to undo the management plan of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Then email them and tell them the same.
Tell your friends and family in other states to also do the same, as soon as possible by Monday the 11th, and then call your U.S. senators AGAIN. Overall we only have to peel off three or four GOP votes to prevent these disasters, but Democrats first have to be kept in line and told to vote NO on both these matters. And buckle up, because as I said we’re going to be facing crises like these all summer as Republicans do everything they can to desecrate our public lands by drilling, mining, and logging under any excuse, or handing over our public lands, wilderness, and resources altogether to corporations and oligarchs who seek to undo our entire conservation legacy. They have no pride, no shame, and no conscience.
ACT NOW: NO on Steve Pearce for BLM director. NO on subverting Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Call your U.S. senators NOW at (202) 224-3121. Call them again.
Here’s details on both matters:
Tell your Senators to Vote NO on Steve Pearce for BLM Director
Steve Pearce has made a career working as an enemy of public lands, and is one of the foremost advocates in government for selling off Americans’ public lands to mining and logging interests eager to privatize them and engage in destructive resource extraction without any public oversight. His nomination as director of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is in the Senate as early as Monday, May 11th, so PLEASE let your U.S. senators know you oppose his nomination and that he is an unacceptable candidate.
As noted by the Conservation Lands Foundation, Pearce has profited into the millions from the oil and gas industry, and while his deep political and personal financial ties to oil and gas should’ve immediately disqualified him from the BLM director job, his nomination was nevertheless approved by the House and passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Every U.S. senator must be contacted to prevent a yes vote on Steve Pearce, and a good tool for doing so remains this Conservation Lands Foundation action alert.
The U.S. Senate has no business approving this man to serve as the director of the BLM — an agency responsible for managing public lands for the benefit of all Americans — when he doesn’t even believe in the idea of public lands being held in trust for the American people in the first place. This is not the guy to have in charge. This is the choice of anti-environmental, anti-democratic, and definitely anti-public lands oligarchs and resource extraction corporations. TELL YOUR U.S. SENATORS TO VOTE NO!
Stop the Eradication of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
I wrote a piece on March 4th with a letter everyone should copy, paste, and use in an email — but you must send it immediately. Utah Senator Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy of Utah’s 2nd congressional district introduced a long-threatened joint resolution to gut the management plan of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument using the same Congressional Review Act (CRA) the Senate used to desecrate the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
If enacted, the results would establish a frightening precedent for Republicans to decimate long-standing conservation policy across the country while they still have power, and would be very bad for habitat, species, and public access. As was the case with the Boundary Waters, the CRA only requires a simple, 51 vote majority.
The result would not only be the eradication of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, but the CRA would prevent the BLM from issuing a similar plan to restore the Monument in the future, thereby undoing protections for the endangered species and fossils that Grand Staircase-Escalante was established to protect in the first place. Along with my essay, you can also utilize these action alerts from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) or the Conservation Lands Foundation to submit comments — but it needs to be done NOW.
Updates, Bad News on Boundary Waters, and Tough Love
Over the last month the Senate voted to allow a Chilean mining firm access to public lands on the Superior National Forest in Minnesota to begin copper mining operations that will poison the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one of America’s premiere angling, boating, and birding locales. Allow me to reiterate. A foreign mining firm — with connections to Trumpland, of course — has been given a green light by Congress and the president to poison one of America’s great wildlands, as well as a federally-designated Wilderness since 1978, so it can sell even more copper to our adversary China.
There once was a time, not that long ago, when that would’ve been terrible, if not fatal, politics. But in our post-Citizens United world, fueled by the Trump regime’s astonishing corruption, it’s business as usual. The United States has long been at risk of being sold to the highest bidder. That is now literally occurring, with even the acquiescence of local politicians who will eventually have to deal with the damage and fallout of the calamitous ecological disaster.
To be clear, every single Democrat — even Fetterman — voted against it. One Republican also joined the Senate Democrats in voting against the proposal, but it passed anyway. Why? Because Republicans have a tiny majority of three votes in the Senate (plus Vice President J.D. Vance if they need a tie-breaking vote). Trump has since signed this wretched bill into law. Now it goes to the courts even as the project moves forward, and the unbridled desecration of this extraordinary fresh water ecosystem begins. As Richard Nixon’s chief of staff H.R. Haldeman famously told John Dean in 1973, “Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s awfully hard to get it back in.” In other words, it’s impossible to reverse absolute destruction.
This is one of the main reasons why nothing else matters but WINNING elections so the good guys have the majority, can put forward good policy and good legislation, and stop bad legislation like poisoning the waters of America’s premiere birding, boating, and angling locations from occurring, that, since 1978, also happens to be a federally-designated Wilderness. Take it from someone who’s lost two general elections: winning is the only thing that matters. Even in a minority, winning gives you some standing. Everything else in a democracy is just platitudes and talk.
Talk is cheap. You have to win first. Start by winning elections.
Banner photo of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument © 2023 Fred Rogers, all rights reserved. Footer photo of BLM sign courtesy of Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management.
