Are Sportsmen Finally Getting A Seat At The Table? Loosening The Energy Industry’s Grip On Congress

Just before Congress left for its Easter break, an event took place that every sportsman in America should become familiar with. The House Committee on Natural Resources held a full oversight hearing entitled, “Access Denied: The Growing Conflict Between Fishing, Hunting, and Energy Development on Federal Lands.”
          
In clear and unambiguous words, representatives from the nation’s leading sportsmen-conservation organizations spelled out what the Bush Administration has been doing to public fish and wildlife habitat, especially in the Rocky Mountains.
        
Their sentiments are best summarized by Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s energy working group, who complained that the Bush Administration had “reprogrammed” federal land managers to make assisting mineral development their first – and sometime only – priority. (download PDF here)

Sparrowe went on to point out that while some energy companies made honest attempts to follow regulations, others “have invested in attempts to discredit research results they perceive as unfavorable to their mission." Realistically, their job is to develop gas and oil and produce as much as possible. Their associations and company lobbyists have pursued "the wildlife question" as an impediment and our government has listened to them and largely ignored the conservation community’s many appeals to slow down and "do this right."

 
Steve Williams, President & CEO of the Wildlife Management Institute, and a former Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under George W. Bush, told the committee,  "As a hunter, angler, and wildlife conservationist, I am troubled by the pace of leasing, exploration, and development occurring throughout large portions of public land in the West. More troubling than the pace of development, however, is the manner in which it is conducted."    

It’s worth reading all of the testimony, then comparing the statements made by Williams and other wildlife professionals to the surreal claims of cooperation and beneficence by the representative of the energy industry, Charles E. Greenhawt of Questar Exploration. (Read it here)

But it’s also significant that the event took place at all.
 
Anyone who hasn’t been sleeping under a rock for the last six years is aware of the damage done to fish and wildlife habitat by the unholy alliance the Bush Administration has with the energy industry.  To be fair, Dubya didn’t hide his intentions during the presidential campaign.  He was going to Washington as an oil man determined to make it easier for the oil bidness to pump energy and profits off public lands. And if the choice ever came down to fish and wildlife vs. oil and gas, goodbye trout and deer.

And the Sportsman-in-Chief couldn't have unleashed this unprecedented assault on public lands without a compliant Republican congress. Sportsmen began complaining almost immediately, but there was never going to be a full oversight committee hearing on how energy development was impacting fish and wildlife under that Congress.

For six years anyone who raised a voice against abuse of public property by the very special interests aligned with the White House risked being called an “extremist” or “obstructionist” – and, of course, the always favorite “unpatriotic.” Those special interests had such a tight grip on Congress, we couldn’t even get a hearing. Remember the Cheney Energy Task Force?

But last fall’s elections changed that equation. So two weeks ago, a Congressional committee actually asked to hear what hunters and anglers thought about the Bush Administrations energy practices on public lands.

Now, if we can only get the Sportsman-in-Chief to listen.

Comments

I used to be a Republican, but after what the gas and oil industry has done here in Western Colorado I will have a hard time voting for them again

[kyle]

I read an article in field and stream recetnly about the bush administration (unwild america), about the carelessness bush and his people have for the eniviroment and all of our greatest hobby. And as a 4th generation hunter and angler in my family I am deeply concerned with the future of one my and all of our greatest get aways.. The wilderness. I mean for goodness sake our government is more worried about how to acquire a product that will ruin our enviroment over time, than how to portect it!!

[Couleeking]

I did not start off as a Democrat but I got that way after I began paying attention to what was being done to our national treasury of public resources. Over 20 years of involvement in conservation policy advocacy I've watched the same process take place in the hearts of new hunters getting involved in hook and bullet politics. A basically conservative, common-sense citizen who never before cast a Democratic ballot suddenly has his nose pushed into the GOP-Industrial-(Fascist) cesspool. It's a baptism of sorts, I suppose. I get angry, however, at American hunters and anglers because all of this was well known and well documents a year prior to the 2004 election and all the GOP had to do was ring the gun-rights bell to make hunters salivate they way right into the voter booth.
I've quit obsessing over Bush. It's hunters I'm mad at. You can't blame a snake for biting: he is a snake after all. But hunters can stop trying to pet him.

[jeff kimble]

I was starting to wonder if I was the only one wondering, what the hell was going on.This adminstration seems to be driven soley on personal reasons.Being oil men of course they support the oil companys.
As for the war, spending billions to protect those that would just as soon kills us if given the chance.I wish someone would explain this to me. Right after I drive by Christs kitchen and see the food lines that go down a whole block.
All this with total disregard to what most of us hold dear and regard as national treasures, maybe just maybe, they are going to buy Iraq, after all our money is spent there and move there to be in control of that oil to.
Even if we can save our public lands for the future, we won't be able to afford the gas to go see them.

[Paul]

Excellent posting Couleeking! You took the words right out of my mouth. I also sometimes wonder if I am the only hunter/fisherman out there that is a true conservationist. The NRA has done more to harm our fish and wildlife,and the places they call home,than any corporation out there. All the public wildlife habitat that our fish and game inhabit, and we pursue as sportsmen, can be wiped out by a stroke of a politican's pen! Why is that concept so hard for some people to understand? Are they dense, or don't they really care?

[Randy H. Shutter]

Ok i live in a state where we pay the second highest energy prices in the us and highest taxes, we dont have a choice here, cant use the wind, no one wants them in there veiw, natual gas pipeline from mass not through our town, dam dont think so some fish wont get by, wood cant cut trees in a wilderness, nuke plant lets shut yankee nuke down, so whats left OIL, until someone comes up with something better, drill mine whatever and dont give me this the sky is falling conservation crap or global warming its april 15th and its snowing here. the country is cleaner now than 20 yrs ago, 50 yrs ago even a 100 yrs ago. you use scare tactics that get people in a tizzy the government is letting this country go to hell and we have to stop it. I hunt and fish in 3 states VT,NY,and PA and pay dearly to do it. am also a gun owning former MARINE.

Randy