BLM authorizes Grand Canyon uranium exploration

Exploration can begin immediately-

BLM authorizes Grand Canyon uranium exploration.By Eric Bontrager. New York Times.

BLM Defies Congress, Authorizes Grand Canyon Uranium Exploration. by Mcjoan. The Daily Kos. “This is not a positive development from Salazar’s Interior Department.”

In my view Obama’s public land policies are turning out to be no better than George W. Bush’s. What a disappointment!

Update May 9, 2009. Suit Challenges New Uranium Exploration That Threatens the Grand Canyon. Center for Biological Diversity.


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  1. Maska Avatar
    Maska

    I agree, Ralph, and am curious to know your thoughts on how best to affect those policies for the better, and failing that, how to force Obama and other disappointing Dems to pay the price for their bowing to special interests without cutting our own throats in the process.

  2. Brian Ertz Avatar

    This is a stick in the eye for Grijalva – who rallied against Bush’s same attempt. The maps of Obama’s intentions with Giant solar that scrape away/sterilize entire public landscapes are coming out of Interior as well – very troubling.

    Congress is in the process of legislation that will undermine NEPA/full environmental analysis & public oversight, and potentially ESA protection at the discretion of Obama – expedited rape of our public landscapes that flies in the face of our most important environmental safeguards.

    This is looking very bad.

  3. Mike Avatar

    If this is true I am pissed off. I have a poll up on my site that asks if “you approve of Salazar” and the “no’s” are up by a few votes.

    It really is a shame that we couldn’t get an Interior head who was more environmentally friendly.

  4. Maska Avatar
    Maska

    Brian, do you have more specifics on that legislation undermining NEPA? Who’s introducing it? What’s the bill number?

    Those of us who railed against the Bush administration and worked for change in the last election need to remove the gloves (never should have put them on in the first place) and come out swinging against Obama, as well as Salazar, on these public lands issues. The effort must include local candidates who replaced Bush allies with our help, too. Playing nicely never seems to get us anywhere.

  5. timz Avatar
    timz

    “Change we need, change we can believe in”

    I’m going to go out of character this time and refrain from saying, I told you so.

  6. kim kaiser Avatar
    kim kaiser

    Quote from another thread “Please contact President Obama. It’s time to see if our new President cares any more about this than George W. did.”

    and based on this thread, and the probably 100 + comments on all the wolf delistings threads,

    Hussein has by all accounts been a great friend to wildlife and forest,

    have you seen enough yet??

  7. Steve C Avatar
    Steve C

    Does anyone know if Bush appointees are still active/ calling the shots in these departments?

  8. timz Avatar
    timz

    I’m sure they must be, God knows the Obama administration can do no wrong.

  9. Steve C Avatar
    Steve C

    Im not happy with Obama so far in these matters but one would have to think that after 8 years of any presidency there must be thousands of people entrenched in federal jobs.

  10. mike post Avatar
    mike post

    …and you folks had the audacity to hope that things would be done differently by a machine politician coming out of one of the most corrupt political environments in America.

  11. timz Avatar
    timz

    People kept blaming the Clintons throught the Bush years and now they will keep blaming Bush through the Obama years and on and on it goes, while corruption and behind the scenes money continue to be the real power in control.

  12. jimbob Avatar
    jimbob

    It might be petty but I hope Obama’s new dog craps all over the White House and it’s grounds! Then I hope somebody does some uranium exploration on the front lawn. Hell, let’s allow people to sell the stupid pillars and have them processed into countertops and tile. Get a sod-cutter and sell the White House lawn, too. All in the name of economic development. While we’re at it, Obama can donate any personal housing he owns to the cause since we’ve given him a place to live for the next four years. By the way, if you recall, I wondered how in the hell he got that nomination. Follow the back-trail and you may find who he’s shilling for…..

  13. jimbob Avatar
    jimbob

    Go ahead, Obama-crats–ignore environmental concerns, which is one reason we elected you in rejection of the other party’s sick environmental record. Your stay will not be long….remember Jimmy Carter? The republicans will do anything to get back into power—maybe even softening their stance on the environment? Both parties are turning into 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Don’t change the furnishings yet, Obama! Things better change.

  14. Jeff N. Avatar
    Jeff N.

    I love how KKKaiser and the rest of the “I told you so” crowd are pissing themselves with excitment over this and other environmental developments w/in the Obama Admin.

    OK you’re right. McCain and Palin would have been the better alternative……..please.

    I realize things don’t look so good on a few environmental fronts right now but as I recall Clintion wasn’t embraced for his environmental record early on, but in the end he gave us the Roadless Rule and wolves were reintroduced into the west/southwest late in his second term.

    I will be contacting the Obama Admin. to let them know of my displeasure, but it’s still early folks and unfortunately at this time there are a few other big fish for Obama to fry.

    I’m retaining my optimism for now.

  15. Brian Ertz Avatar

    it may be true that there are burrowed Bush appointees in the departments — maybe even it’s still early (though i don’t think so) — but the fact is if Obama picked the right people (i.e. NOT Salazar) or if he himself (or those within his administration) had any knowledge or intention of the problem, they could be issuing MOUs, Exec. Orders, and any number of other mechanisms that give Executive wide-sweeping discretion to set the right tone. The lawyers at the Justice Department and solicitors at Interior could look at those memos, orders, and priorities and they could sit down and settle environmental disputes brought by public rather than fighting tooth and nail, just as Bush’s departments did, to maintain extractive use and work to advance a minimalist interpretation of environmental law. That’s what they’re doing – to do otherwise, to advance a protective interpretation of already existing environmental law is an MOU away – an Executive Order away – a phone call away and there’s been plenty of time. Even if the government didn’t want to make the fight, it could issue such language and let those of us who are members of the willing public do so – that’s what we do.

    We are being rolled – the heavy hitters at Interior and within the administration have very little interest in the political flare-ups in the West that a meaningful conservation direction would spur and the landscape continues to take the hit for it. We will lose species and wild places for our empty patience. We will lose species and wild places for our blind patience.

    The burrows in agency are not to blame – they could be rolled just as easily as we are being rolled right now – the inaction of a President who promised change is to blame and we must be willing to fight, criticize, and raise hell to bring that to his attention.

  16. kt Avatar
    kt

    Salazar is a stupid frontman for others. Remember there is lots of investment speculation and bilking of investors over uranium claims – value skyrocketed in spring-summer 2008 before the economy crashed/imploded. I think it would be very interesting to know what powerful Democrats or campaign backers might be involved in speculation/investment on these claims.

  17. timz Avatar
    timz

    “OK you’re right. McCain and Palin would have been the better alternative……..please.”

    Ah yes, what has become the American way, we have settled for the lesser of two evils, which by the way is still evil.

  18. timz Avatar
    timz

    Brian, I envy your way with words.

  19. kim kaiser Avatar
    kim kaiser

    “I will be contacting the Obama Admin. to let them know of my displeasure, but it’s still early folks and unfortunately at this time there are a few other big fish for Obama to fry.

    I’m retaining my optimism for now.”

    keep on wishing there pal,,, you are simply in denial that you have been screwed!!

    Pissing on myself, hardly, hussein is not worth the effort,, just a gentle reminder that again, were so mad at bush et al, you forgot to sift through the rhetoric, the fine speeches, all the staged passing out of the participants in praise of the annoited one,, and have basically got pissed on by him.. pull out your umbrellas folks,, the yellow rain is falling,,and you put him there

  20. frank Avatar
    frank

    I am guessing that he is better than the geriatric buffoon that you would have elected.

  21. kim kaiser Avatar
    kim kaiser

    someone wrote “Salazar is a stupid frontman for others” yeah right,, probably harry reid!!

    Frontman???? hell he is the appointee with the full backing of hussein,, no frontman anything, he is the mouthpiece for the president!!! If husseing doesnt know what Salazar is doing, one of two things, and maybe even both are happening.
    1 Hussein cant multitask like he said he could and cant keep a lid on his people, therefore making him inept,

    or both apply,,

    one more time, people… WAKE UP!!! take responsibility for what you have done, you put him there,,!!!

    i wonder how much money the pro wolf legal fees are beginning to build up on trying to fight the delisting one more time, and dont tell me its free!!, nothing involved with atty’s, court action, legal proceedings is free, someone is ALWAYS paying somewhere,

    all this from mr enviro-green,,,

  22. kim kaiser Avatar
    kim kaiser

    “I am guessing that he is better than the geriatric buffoon that you would have elected.”

    really, is that all you got!!

    fact is,, hussein is NO BETTER THAN SARAH PALIN WHEN IT COMES TO WOLVES AND POLAR BEARS!!!!!!

    do you get it yet!!

  23. frank Avatar
    frank

    Kim,
    Your last post is confusing, yet still funny.

    Bravo

  24. frank Avatar
    frank

    “Your last post is confusing, yet still funny.”
    I meant the gibberish at 10:24.

  25. kim kaiser Avatar
    kim kaiser

    oh, you mean the facts of husseins record as to wolves, polar bears, uranium exploration??

    nothing gibberish about that, they are simply facts you cant dispel. Read the hundreds of comments in total disappointment by 99.9% of the vocal, monetary and spritual supporters of hussein on this site as they regard to wolf delisting, polar bear protection, uranium exploration,, hmmmm!! got it yet,, or maybe he will want to tap into the thermals of Yellowstone to harvest the wonders of steam!!

    simple enough for you! You are trying to diminish the actions of your boy at the expense of my writing skills,, but the facts of his record so far indicate, that between Sarah Palin and Hussein Obama, there is not one difference between the two when it comes to enviromental protections!! anything confusing about that!!

  26. frank Avatar
    frank

    Seriously, do you have to keep saying “boy”? Also, do you realize that NO ONE takes you seriously when you say “Hussein”? Then again, I doubt anyone took you seriously before. You keep calling him “boy”. That is offensive.

  27. jimbob Avatar
    jimbob

    Why is Kim Kaiser such a shill for the Republican Party? Dude, your thoughtlessness on individual issues instead of just trumpeting the republican party’s “wonderfulness” is even more off-putting than your racism. You can’t really think that Bush did any good for this country? We are halfway to hell in a handbasket and Bush/Cheney drove the bus here! I’m no Obama fan, but come on……Bush?!

  28. JEFF E Avatar
    JEFF E

    also in Arizona, from “No more pork” McCain
    http://www.idahostatesman.com/531/story/830497.html

Author

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.

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