Western guvs pan Gibbons' land grab Governors, Nevada, Policy Issues, The Big Strategy

If Jim Gibbons ends up in the governor's mansion in Carson City next year, he's not going to find a lot of friendly faces around the table when he goes to his first Western Governor's Association meeting. Said the AP (thanks VJGO):

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. ...

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, it's not just the West's numerous Democratic governors panning Gibbon's lame idea, Repubicans from the Western red states think it's pretty bad. Said the Nevada Scandalmonger:

Wyoming Senators don't like the legislation either. See Sen. Craig Thomas' (R-Wyoming) remarks. Jeez, that's Cheney country, kids. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) doesn't like the bill and he wants to blow away Grizzlies, for Pete's sake. These aren't wild-eyed liberals by any stretch of the imagination. Boy, Gibbons' bill has too reek to get these guys against it.

That Western Democrats governors and the upper house Republicans from Wyoming are opposed to Gibbons' bill should tell you something: Gibbons is woefully behind the times in judging Western attitudes about federal giveaways to resource extraction industries. The GOP is thanking God that he isn't running for governor of Wyoming, because he would have likely killed his campaign by now.

Republicans and Democrats in Wyoming are uniting against the BLM and the federal government's efforts to open more federal land (and a lot of and below private land) to drilling. If the two Dem candidates for governor in Nevada can connect Gibbons to what is going on in Wyoming, then they' have something.

Emmett O'Connell | December 4, 2005 | Comment on This Post (2 so far) Permalink: Western guvs pan Gibbons' land grab Governors, Nevada, Policy Issues, The Big Strategy

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