Trump's Budget Will Destroy National Parks | Outside Online - Wes Siler:
February 15, 2018 - "Recently, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke employed a bait-and-switch defense of President Trump’s bait-and-switch budget proposal for the Department of the Interior.
"The bait? An $18 billion fund for fixing the National Park Service’s massive maintenance backlog. The switch? It’d be paid for by deregulating oil and gas extraction on public lands, firing NPS employees, and empowering Zinke to sell off any public lands he wishes....
"As a recap for those of you fortunate enough to not have to closely follow Washington’s political machinations, the White House budget isn’t law. It’s more a piece of science fiction about how the president and his minions hope the government might work next year.... Still, as a statement of how the executive branch wishes it could govern ... the budget proposal is ... the first time we’ve seen an outline of exactly what Trump and Zinke plan to do to our national parks.
"The big proposal here is the creation of that $18 billion infrastructure fund for the NPS. Like the $1.5 trillion in national infrastructure spending Trump called for in his State of the Union address, the vast majority of that total will need to come from private industry. Specifically, the budget calls for the federal government to contribute only $257 million over the next ten years, while the remaining $17.743 billion would come from the energy extraction industries....
"The NPS currently has an $11.6 billion maintenance backlog and is desperately in need of repairs to its roads, trails, visitor facilities, and other infrastructure assets. Placing the majority of that burden on private industry operating on public lands seems like a great way to fix all that without raising taxes or visitor fees.
"The trouble is that ... we must assume that other allocations won’t require more money than planned, that rates for energy leases (and energy sales) will remain stable, and, of course, that the the number of leases will massively expand....
"The budget calls for firing 1,835 NPS employees, at a time when national park visitation is at its highest level ever. It would also remove 559 people from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1,209 from the U.S. Geological Survey, and 330 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.....
"The budget also suggests selling off the George Washington Parkway and Baltimore Washington Parkway, two D.C.-area roads that are owned by the Park Service. That may sound practical — toll roads make a ton of financial sense — but in so doing, the budget gives the DOI the authority to sell off any other public lands that 'demonstrate an increase in value from the sale' and 'optimize the taxpayer value for Federal assets' In short, if he can make money from them, Zinke can sell public lands willy-nilly — the language giving him authorization to do so is hidden inside an otherwise practical provision."
Read more: https://www.outsideonline.com/2281851/trumps-budget-will-destroy-national-parks
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February 15, 2018 - "Recently, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke employed a bait-and-switch defense of President Trump’s bait-and-switch budget proposal for the Department of the Interior.
"The bait? An $18 billion fund for fixing the National Park Service’s massive maintenance backlog. The switch? It’d be paid for by deregulating oil and gas extraction on public lands, firing NPS employees, and empowering Zinke to sell off any public lands he wishes....
"As a recap for those of you fortunate enough to not have to closely follow Washington’s political machinations, the White House budget isn’t law. It’s more a piece of science fiction about how the president and his minions hope the government might work next year.... Still, as a statement of how the executive branch wishes it could govern ... the budget proposal is ... the first time we’ve seen an outline of exactly what Trump and Zinke plan to do to our national parks.
"The big proposal here is the creation of that $18 billion infrastructure fund for the NPS. Like the $1.5 trillion in national infrastructure spending Trump called for in his State of the Union address, the vast majority of that total will need to come from private industry. Specifically, the budget calls for the federal government to contribute only $257 million over the next ten years, while the remaining $17.743 billion would come from the energy extraction industries....
"The NPS currently has an $11.6 billion maintenance backlog and is desperately in need of repairs to its roads, trails, visitor facilities, and other infrastructure assets. Placing the majority of that burden on private industry operating on public lands seems like a great way to fix all that without raising taxes or visitor fees.
"The trouble is that ... we must assume that other allocations won’t require more money than planned, that rates for energy leases (and energy sales) will remain stable, and, of course, that the the number of leases will massively expand....
"The budget calls for firing 1,835 NPS employees, at a time when national park visitation is at its highest level ever. It would also remove 559 people from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1,209 from the U.S. Geological Survey, and 330 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.....
"The budget also suggests selling off the George Washington Parkway and Baltimore Washington Parkway, two D.C.-area roads that are owned by the Park Service. That may sound practical — toll roads make a ton of financial sense — but in so doing, the budget gives the DOI the authority to sell off any other public lands that 'demonstrate an increase in value from the sale' and 'optimize the taxpayer value for Federal assets' In short, if he can make money from them, Zinke can sell public lands willy-nilly — the language giving him authorization to do so is hidden inside an otherwise practical provision."
Read more: https://www.outsideonline.com/2281851/trumps-budget-will-destroy-national-parks
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