TODAY: US Congress Moves Toward Land Access For Energy and Outdoor Sports

Live Webcast:

Click HERE to watch the markup beginning at 4:00 PM ET

Remarks as prepared for delivery:

“Today, the Committee will consider several important bipartisan bills, beginning with H.R. 3668—the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement, or SHARE Act. This legislation strengthens the foundation of our country’s hunting and fishing heritage and helps ensure the next generation of sportsmen and women continue to enjoy access to our nation’s federal lands and waterways to carry out these activities and traditions.

“Sportsmen and women depend on reliable access to the more than 640 million acres of federal public lands to participate in recreational activities like hunting. Unfortunately, these lands are not being managed to facilitate consistent, open access for hunters. A 2004 report found that over 35 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land lacked adequate access for hunting. H.R. 3668 will ensure millions of American sportsmen and women can continue their enthusiastic participation in traditional outdoor sporting activities—including hunting, shooting and angling—unimpeded by federal bureaucrats and burdensome regulations.

“We also will consider H.R. 210, bipartisan legislation to promote energy development by Native American tribes and Alaska Native Corporations, sponsored by Congressman Young. This legislation will provide tribes, some of whom experience high unemployment, opportunities to boost jobs and revenue by developing resources on their lands.

“Finally, we will consider five commonsense bills to advance the Committee’s longer-term goal of updating and improving the Endangered Species Act—which was last reauthorized in 1988. Most of these measures enjoy bipartisan support and a few have previously passed the House as part of other measures…”
Read more.

Click here for more information on today’s markup.

NOTE: After opening statements today, the markup will reconvenetomorrow at 10:00 AM for votes. Click here to view tomorrow’s live webcast.

AFTER THE COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT:

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on H.R. 3668, the “Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2017” or “SHARE Act.” The bill increases opportunities for hunters, anglers and shooters, eliminates red tape impeding outdoor sporting activities, and protects Second Amendment Rights.

“Outdoor sporting activities, including hunting, fishing and recreational shooting, are deeply engrained in the fabric of America’s culture and heritage. Values of personal responsibility, resource management and conservation and outdoor recreation instilled by these activities are passed down from generation to generation and play a significant role in the lives of millions of Americans,” Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) said.

Outdoor sporting activities are a major economic driver in the United States. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, sportsmen and women annually generate 7.6 million American jobs, $65.3 billion in federal tax revenues and a combined $59.2 billion in state and local taxes.

Despite the significant economic benefits of outdoor sporting activities, unnecessary bureaucratic roadblocks inhibit access to these activities on federal lands.

“Among the Most commonly cited reasons by Americans who have given up on these recreational pursuits on public lands are access issues,”McClintock argued.

The “SHARE Act” includes multiple provisions that improve access and opportunities for outdoor recreation and sporting activities on federal lands, including requiring the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to be “open until closed” for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting.

“As a nation, we must encourage all Americans, and in particular young people and urban residents, to increase their participation in wildlife-oriented recreation, including hunting, shooting and fishing,” Anna Seidman, Director of Government Affairs for the Safari Club International Seidman, said. “[The ‘SHARE Act’] removes statutory and regulatory obstacles that inhibit federal agencies from providing access and opportunities [for sportsmen and women].”

The “SHARE Act” also increases safety and hearing protection for sportsmen and women by removing onerous requirements associated with purchasing hearing protection equipment.

No reason exists why one should be forced to damage one’s hearing to hunt, target shoot, or exercise one’s second Amendment rights,” Stephen Halbrook, an attorney who specializes in Second Amendment issues, stated.

The bill prevents firearm mufflers from being regulated under the 1934 National Firearms Act, which requires a $200 transfer tax fee. It also ends the requirement that law-abiding gun owners go through a secondary, outmoded federal background check and continues to treat mufflers as firearms subject to extensive regulations under the Gun Control Act.

[The ‘SHARE Act’] would protect law enforcement interests while at the same time allowing law-abiding gun owners to protect their health better and to reduce noise pollution,” Halbrook added.

Christopher Sharon, CEO of Hope for the Warriors, added that firearm mufflers are vital for veterans’ enjoyment of the outdoors, pointing to the prevalence of hearing loss for those who have trained and served in our military.

Preserving what remains of our heroes’ hearing, while still giving them the opportunities to live a full life is our goal,” Sharon stated.

Click here to view full witness testimony.

Click here for more information on the “SHARE Act.”

On August 24, OUR MID ATLANTIC ENERGY ANALYST FRIEND sent along the PERCEPTIVE, PREDICTIVE comments below, along with an article (summarized in an update article at the bottom):

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We have observed that there is no piece of infrastructure more despised by society members than pipelines (statues of Robert E. Lee do not count). Opponents range from presidents and other government heads, down through state/provincial governments, to environmental activists, and all the way down to farmers and local resident groups. As the expansion of oil and gas production have increased in North America over the last ten+ years, so too has the opposition to pipelines ratcheted up, become more intense and sophisticated, and generally increasingly effective. The objective of the opposition has been to stop construction, but they never have to get definitive decisions. They just have to wear down projects for such an extended period of time that the economics become questionable.

We recently wrote about the fact that Canada, for all of its resources, is becoming a country choking on its inability to get infrastructure projects completed. It may be considered worse than the U.S. to get things built, a high bar indeed.  The story below, discusses the relative chances for the Energy East Pipeline and the Trans Mountain Pipeline. The first is to take Alberta oil production to the east coast, the second is move it to British Columbia. The projects are not mutually exclusive; both could be successful if built on a timely basis. The third direction for the Alberta production is to the Keystone XL project through the US, which still is fighting the knuckle draggers.

The point of bringing this up tonight is the following part of the article:

Ottawa set the table on Energy East Wednesday when the NEB announced it would include a review of all upstream and downstream climate change impacts that could be associated with the pipeline.

If one wants to kill a project through added delays and nit-picking objections,throwing in a climate change review from the wellhead production to the final use of the crude oil is a great to apply the dictumTIME KILLS.

And while we realize this is being conjured up by those crazy canucks (just kidding), such notions can quickly find their way into new venues, including the U.S.

Especially the global warming scam.

Watch for this to be adopted by a court near you. Even if it subsequently were dismissed on appeal in some districts, it only takes one small group of activist judges to move this tar baby up the line to the Supreme Court, which could add years to the process.

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Well, our prediction did not take long to start to show up. The following is a note today from RBN Energy.  Our standard slide presentation to groups starts with the following two “perceptions” as cornerstones of the primary trends affecting energy development:

  • The U.S. has a long-term (100 years?) supply of cheap natural gas
  • Climate Change needs action

(We do not believe either of these, but we do not shape consensus beliefs; we just write about them)

In the Immutable Principles, we note:

The more a growing society demands greater access to energy, the more it will create roadblocks to its delivery.

There are numerous cases winding through the courts that intertwine energy supply and delivery with the Global Warming hoax. But this one, making pipelines implicitly accountable for the use of the delivered hydrocarbons by their customers, is particularly ominous.  If successful with this ploy, the next steps are certain to include the following:

  • Hold them responsible for mitigating (or getting agreements to mitigate by its customers) the greenhouse effects of the delivered and used hydrocarbons
  • Sue them later on if their estimates are judged to be erroneous.

Like anything else, this is part of a process by the Greens.

And, of course, the side problem for energy delivery is the time it takes to litigate and comply with these attacks.

https://rbnenergy.com/wait-a-minute-mr-ferc-man-how-a-recent-court-ruling-could-impede-new-gas-pipelines