Government to Sell Acres of Land in Western States

... for mining.

House lawmakers added the provision, which ends an 11-year congressional ban on new applications to buy public land for mining, to their budget bill on the Friday before Thanksgiving.

At least some people are concerned about this.

Six Western governors and a growing number of senators say they fear a plan in a budget bill allowing the sale of millions of acres of public lands could do permanent harm to their states.

"It's got implications for hunters, sportsmen, people who use lands for grazing and basically anybody who uses public lands," said Angela de Rocha, a spokeswoman for Wayne Allard of Colorado, one of a handful of Western GOP senators who say they are concerned about the proposal.

Of course the Dems are leading the assault on this ridiculous proposal.

In a letter Friday to the Senate Budget Committee, the Democratic governors of Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington said the bill is based on "absurd economics" and threatens people's access to parks and other public lands.

And here's the money quote from Rep. Richard Pombo's (Tracy) office.

Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said the bill is about "sustainable economic development for rural communities in need" and that Pombo would be open to negotiating some changes.

Ah yes. Mining is sustainable development. That is brilliant. I mean if we really cared about these communities, we might actually try to give them the tools to make it in the 21st Century, instead of forcing them to do what they have done in the past. Certainly there is a romantic element of maintaing tradition, but when the tradition is exploitive of the land, unhealthy for the workers, and ultimately a dead-end economically... maybe we should try something else. Maybe wind farming?

Notice where most of the good - excellent wind is? Let's actually think about the future... now there is an idea.