Latest news with #SouthernNevadaPublicLandsManagementAct
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Public lands ‘fire sale' plan fuels criticism from Nevada, environmental groups
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Public lands advocates, environmental groups and Nevada politicians issued strong reactions as details of a plan to sell off millions of acres emerged on Wednesday. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee's plan could result in as much as 3 million acres at fair market value, with all the money going directly into the U.S. Treasury, where it will help pay for extensions to President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts. 'It is clear that this language was developed behind closed doors without input from critical Nevada stakeholders because it ignores provisions for affordable housing and eliminates funding Nevada relies on for our schools and water conservation projects,' Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Wednesday night. BLM auctions in the Las Vegas valley generate millions in revenue for parks and recreation through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA). Nevada public lands likely a target again when Senate takes up Trump's 'one big, beautiful bill' 'If we truly want to support affordable housing and economic development in Nevada, everyone needs to be at the table. Shoving lands sales in a reconciliation bill in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires is not the way forward, and I'll continue to fight against this misguided proposal,' she said. Lee's plan would sell off up to 3.3 million acres, according to the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter. The majority of U.S. public lands are in the West, and 80% of Nevada is federally owned. The Bureau of Land Management controls 47 million acres (63% of the state) and the Forest Service owns 5.7 million acres. Those two agencies are ordered to sell land in Lee's proposal. At the end of the 69-page document detailing the plan, a single paragraph earmarks $500 million for 'water conveyance enhancement' to restore or increase the capacity or use of existing conveyance facilities constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation. The magnitude of the federal ownership of land in the West becomes clear in the plan's goal of selling 0.5% to 0.75% of land under the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Agriculture, which is over the Forest Service. The equates to 2.2 million to 3.3 million acres. 'Our organization has always upheld that this type of land sale could never fix the affordable housing crisis,' Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, said Wednesday. 'No one who needs affordable housing can afford to live in the outskirts of town with no access to public transportation, jobs, schools, or grocery stores.' East Las Vegas valley site revealed in affordable housing plan The Sierra Club is putting on five town hall meetings in Las Vegas to help explain Lee's proposal. The first is tonight — Thursday, June 12, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Enterprise Library. A June 18 meeting at the Summerlin Library is from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Click here for more on the Sierra Club's schedule. More than 100 groups opposed including public land sales in the 'one big, beautiful bill' making its way through the U.S. Senate. 'Public lands are part of our national heritage, and people around the country have stood up and said 'no' to the MAGA public land fire sale,' Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said earlier in the week. 'America needs these beautiful places for wildlife, people, clean air and clean water. Sen. Mike Lee is trying to ram public land sell-offs down Westerners' throats, and we won't stand for it.' The reconciliation bill was passed by the U.S. House on May 22, but without Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei's amendment to sell public lands. That provision was stripped out as Republican leaders moved to be sure they had the votes to pass the bill. Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, former U.S. Interior secretary during Trump's first term, would have voted against the bill if it included the public land sales. Lee's bill exempts Montana public lands from the sale, but that might not be enough to swing his vote if the bill gets back to the House. 'This was my San Juan Hill; I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands,' Zinke told the New York Times last month. 'Once the land is sold, we will never get it back.' Cortez Masto and others have criticized Amodei's tactic in using a late-night session for his amendment, escaping immediate public scrutiny. They have also criticized Lee, who didn't release his plan until Cortez Masto pressed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday. 'Yet again, decision makers in Washington D.C. are making deals behind closed doors and excluding the public on how to manage our public lands,' Russell Kuhlman, executive director of the Nevada Wildlife Federation,' said. 'We already have processes in place to deal with the sale of public lands to address housing in the west which includes public participation. Circumventing nearly 50 years of tradition and trust in order to sell land to the highest bidder is not a precedent our decision makers should be making. I urge the Senate to listen to the hunters, anglers, hikers, and other public land users that make up the majority of westerners who want this proposal removed from the reconciliation bill.' Kristee Watson, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, echoed that statement. 'This is what happens when you open the door to backroom land deals,' Watson said. 'Mark Amodei lit the match, and now extremists in the Senate are fueling the fire, pushing a reckless sell-off of our public lands without public input or regard for the consequences. These lands are not 'disposable' — they fuel Nevada's $8.1 billion outdoor economy, support thousands of jobs, and provide the open spaces that make our state special.' Watson said the move isn't about the housing crisis. 'It's about greed. Politicians in DC are once again trying to sell out Nevadans and put our public lands on the auction block to fund handouts for their billionaire buddies. We urge the Senate to reject this dangerous amendment and stand with Nevadans, not with out-of-state developers and wealthy interests,' she said. 'Senator Mike Lee should be ashamed of himself for using the housing affordability crisis as an excuse to sell public lands off to private developers,' Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, said. 'Time and time again, Westerners have made it crystal clear that they want to keep public lands in public hands. Clearly Senator Lee isn't listening.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Senate Is Considering Selling Public Land. It Could Be About 2 Million Acres
While members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee painted vastly different pictures of the state of public-land and natural-resources management in America, suggestions that a large land-auction amendment is forthcoming dominated today's budget reconciliation debate. The sale of as much as two million acres of federal lands in Nevada, Alaska, Utah, and Idaho could be part of the federal budget proposal. A proposal to sell about 500,000 acres of land in Nevada and Utah caused such an uproar among hunters, anglers, and outdoor recreationists in the House version of the budget bill that the provision was removed. But now the Senate might reintroduce an even bigger land-sale proposal, and details could be released as soon as this evening. Committee Chair Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a consistent proponent of transferring federal lands to state management, indicated that language identifying parcels of federal land and a process for their sale is forthcoming. 'Language will be out shortly,' Lee told his Senate colleagues shortly after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, testifying before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on budget details, confirmed that discussions about a massive land-sale have been taking place. 'We've been going through the Republican-side Byrd process and will be releasing bill text soon,' Lee noted. The Byrd rule prohibits the inclusion of non-budgetary items in a budget reconciliation bill. Indications that Lee has been working to restore a land-sale provision in the budget bill have been circulating for at least a week. Montana Sen. Steve Daines (R) told the news site Politico that he had been working with Lee on what he characterized as land sales that are 'very, very narrow in scope.' Daines had previously said that he opposes land sales. On Wednesday Daines' office reaffirmed that position to Outdoor Life in an emailed statement, noting that 'Senator Daines is against the sale of public lands and is making his strong concerns clear to his colleagues.' Lee's acknowledgement that a large land-sale amendment might be forthcoming came after a contentious exchange on the topic between Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Burgum. 'In Nevada, we support public-land sales, particularly in southern Nevada and especially under the parameters that are set by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA),' Cortez Masto told Burgum, who has previously indicated that he supports the SNPLMA model. 'It's a model that requires robust stakeholder engagement that addresses all the land-management issues that we need, from affordable housing to economic development to water and infrastructure needs.' Cortez Masto noted that under the SNPLMA model, revenue from the sale of federal lands is returned to the BLM for revinvestment in other public lands. She scolded Burgum for supporting the House budget provision that included land disposals in Nevada that didn't follow the SNPLMA model. 'You had land in the House side [of the reconciliation bill] that was in the middle of the desert,' she said. 'It makes no sense. I don't know any builders who can build affordable housing in the middle of the desert. But now I'm hearing a proposal by the chair of this committee to put this back in reconciliation. I'm hearing the proposal would allow the federal government to sell up to two million acres of land. Is that correct?' Before Lee interjected to confirm that he's working on a land-disposal amendment, Burgum told Cortez Masto that federal land in at least four states would be considered. 'Generically, when anybody has looked at land sales, they would look at the states that have been most overburdened by federal government holdings, and among the top of that is Nevada, Alaska, Idaho, and Utah with the highest percentage of federal land.' Read Next: Here's Why the Federal Land Sale Bill Is a Bad Idea, and Horrible Legislation Lee gave Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee members until this evening to submit comments and amendments for consideration. The whole committee will reconvene to debate and vote on its part of the reconciliation bill. Senate leadership has indicated it might keep the body in session through the July 4 recess in order to pass its version of the budget, which would then go back to the House for concurrence. Lee noted in his remarks to the committee that 'Anything on public land sales will involve a public process that will be part of any sale.' This story was updated on June 11 at 5:43 EST to include comment from Sen. Daines' office.
