‘A devastating blow': Western governors wary of public land sales
SANTA FE, New Mexico — Bipartisan leaders of Western states cautioned Congress on Monday against broad mandates to sell public lands to help pay for Republicans' tax cuts, energy and border security megabill.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said during a news conference here, ahead of the Western Governors' Association annual meeting, that cutting public land access to hunters, anglers and other recreationists in Colorado through sales 'would be a devastating blow to the quality of life, as well to our economy.'
Republican governors were more open to the idea of selling off some federal land but said those decisions should be driven by local and state leaders, not Congress.
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Wyoming's Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said public lands are important to Wyomingites but that he was open to case-by-case proposals for sales.
'Those kinds of decisions should be made on a local level with a very robust process that does not say we're going to wholesale get rid of our public lands, but we're going to look at certain places where the adjustments that we can make just make better sense than what we have today,' he said.
He noted there are areas in Wyoming that have a 'checkerboard' of private, state and federal land ownership that make them difficult to manage.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the current chair of the Western Governors' Association, said a sweeping auction of public lands would be a 'nonstarter' for New Mexico.
'The process that has been described so far is a problem for a state like New Mexico,' she said at the news conference.
Land sales proposed as part of the Republican 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' currently under consideration have faced opposition from environmental groups, hunters and anglers, as well as several prominent Republican lawmakers in states like Montana. Recently, GOP Sens. Jim Risch and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo, both from Idaho, joined the chorus of critics.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) has been adamant that sales will be included in the budget reconciliation package. Lee originally called for the sale of 1.5 percent of the federal estate, exempting protected areas and saying there would be local input on what plots to sell. New draft language states that land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service would only be sold for 'development of housing or to address associated infrastructure to support local housing needs.'
Grisham said that she was open to the idea of using some public land for housing but that the essence of public lands should be protected.
'They belong to all of us and selling that to the private sector without a process, without putting New Mexicans first, is at least for me as a governor going to be problematic,' she said.
She said: 'We want flexibility. We want opportunities at the federal level, but a one size fits all typically doesn't work for most governors.'
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) praised the Trump administration leadership on Western land issues so far but also echoed the need for national policies that are guided by states.
'The solutions for the United States' problems are not going to come from D.C. They're going to come from the states and the governors and the legislators,' he said.
The meeting in Santa Fe will include speeches from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and, on Tuesday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Grisham said Monday that the governors would push the administration on the issues they are united on.
'Particularly at the beginning of a new administration, I think we lean in a little bit harder,' she said.
A local protest and march against the sale of public lands, organized by conservation groups, was scheduled to coincide with Burgum's address to governors.
'Our cherished public lands are the backbone of the West and the core of our identity as Americans. It's disgusting that anyone would back this plan to permanently privatize and bulldoze these beautiful places,' said Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement Monday. 'Every Western governor should publicly oppose this reckless proposal and pledge that their states won't participate in dismantling our public lands if this monstrosity becomes law.'
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