OPINION:
President Obama’s recently announced and sweeping carbon-emissions regulations, known as the Clean Power Plan, are aimed at decreasing the use of fossil fuels and, as the president has admitted, will almost certainly cause the price of energy to skyrocket. But more quietly and urged on by environmental activists, Mr. Obama has also sought other means to slow or stop energy production. And with a stroke of the pen, he recently put more than 1,000 square miles off-limits from energy exploration.
An arcane provision in the 1906 Antiquities Act allows presidents to bypass Congress and unilaterally designate areas of land as national monuments. A monument designation allows restrictions on activity like recreation, agriculture and energy development without the input of legislators or local communities that are most affected. As such, it is a tempting tool for environmentalists to stop affordable energy production.
With three new simultaneous designations in Nevada, Texas and California, totaling more than 1 million acres, the president nearly doubled the amount of land he has declared monuments. He has now used this authority 19 times, declaring more than 260 million acres monuments — more than any other president.
The action follows the “keep it in the ground” position that the Obama administration harbors toward fossil fuels.
Oil production increased 61 percent on state and private lands between 2009 and 2013, but fell 6 percent on federal lands, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. During the same five years, natural gas production rose by a third on state and private lands but dropped 28 percent on federal lands.
Federal lands hold tremendous potential. A study by Timothy Considine, a professor of energy economics at the University of Wyoming, found opening federal lands could lead to $26.5 billion in annual gross regional product, more than $5 billion in tax revenue and more than 200,000 jobs in the Rocky Mountain region. Monument designations allow the president to lock up these resources by fiat.
In order to tamp down local opposition and give the appearance of a broad base of support for such controversial environmental initiatives, left-wing activists have been especially sneaky by cloaking their appearance — and the recent monument designations were no exception.
A group called Backcountry Hunters and Anglers took out a full-page advertisement in a Nevada newspaper praising Mr. Obama’s actions to lock up 704,000 acres a couple of hours north of Las Vegas. (The group’s executive director, Land Tawney, was a leader of a “Sportsmen for Obama” coalition that aided his 2008 election.)
Environmental and left-wing foundations have poured millions into such self-described “sportsmen,” “hunting” and “angling” groups, using them as cover to push their pet causes. Such groups give the appearance of moderate or conservative-leaning support for locking away uses of land that may benefit local communities. But the funding for these groups comes from far-left environmentalists.
When following Backcountry Hunters and Anglers’ money to the source, it’s easy to forget the group has anything to do with hunting and fishing. Its major donor is the Western Conservation Foundation, which has also given handsomely over the years to radical environmentalists at the Natural Resources Defense Council (that group colluded with the Environmental Protection Agency on the climate regulations) and Earth Justice (the “law firm of the environment”) — groups opposed to affordable energy development, preferring instead unreliable and expensive wind and solar energy.
Obama administration emails leaked in 2010 identified 14 sites covering 13 million acres as possible new monument designations. As Mr. Obama’s last term winds to a close, it’s likely more land will be locked up — whether local communities like it or not.
• Richard Berman is president of Berman and Co., a Washington public affairs firm.
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