According to a new blog post by The Wilderness Society, the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes push to trade away a piece of Yosemite National Park to a private developer isn’t an isolated move—it’s one of at least seven similar efforts to privatize or dispose of public land.
Examples include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service handing SpaceX a chunk of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Interior’s removal of protections for 2.1 million acres of Alaska public land to clear the way for the Ambler Road mining project, and a federal housing task force identifying Bureau of Land Management land within 10 miles of any town of more than 5,000 people for potential disposal.
The push to privatize part of Yosemite National Park was first reported in late August by NOTUS (now the Washington Sun), which said that Interior is negotiating a swap that would give developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital a private access road to a planned resort in exchange for equivalent-value land elsewhere in California.
The Yosemite deal, The Wilderness Society wrote, sets “yet another chilling precedent of public land decisions made by the administration to directly benefit special interests.“
EPA removes limits on pollution from power plants
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced it will no longer regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas plants. The move finalizes the reversal of a Biden-era rule that estimates it would have saved thousands of lives, and begins the process of completely rescinding all remaining GHG emissions standards for power plants. The EPA said that greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have “no material impact on global climate change,” despite the fact that US electricity generation is responsible for a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Quick hits
EPA erases limits on climate pollution from power plants
New York Times | CNN | The Guardian | Los Angeles Times | Washington Post
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Opinion: What Teddy Roosevelt knew and Trump doesn’t get: Public lands need science
The Trump admin says repealing the Roadless Rule will reduce wildfires. A new study casts doubt on that
Interior defends Utah monument reductions despite public outcry
Yosemite development scheme recalls admin’s other public lands sell-off efforts
What will happen to the Grand Canyon as water levels drop?
Quote of the day
America’s public lands are among our nation’s greatest treasures. Protecting them requires more than celebrating them. It requires defending the science, scientific workforce, and public institutions that make stewardship possible.”
—Julian Reyes, Chief of Staff at the Union of Concerned Scientists, The Equation
Picture This
The Roadless Rule is in danger. Click the link in our bio and tell the Forest Service you value America’s last wild landscapes before the public comment period closes on Sept. 21.
(Featured image: Yosemite Falls at Yosemite National Park in California. webmink, Flickr)