The administration today opened 58.5 million acres of federal lands to logging roads, four-wheel drives - even energy exploration and exploitation. This parcel includes some of the only pristine areas remaining in the U.S.
They are completely changing the assumptions about how this land should be protected while shifting the responsibility to the governors. The rule change means that governors can prevent roadbuilding in the formerly protected federal lands only by petitioning Washington. Now conservation groups will have to appeal to (and sue) their state government, with corporate America knocking on that same governor's door.
The Roadless Rule was a creation of the Clinton administration. While this rollback was under consideration by the administration, the rule receieved support from a record-breaking 2.5 million public comments.
These are federal lands, my friends. They belong to all of us, reagardless of where they are located. It should not be the priveledge or the responsibility of state governments to regulate them.
Here's a media link.
