BLM’s Battle Mountain District Manager Doug Furtado (photo: Elkodaily.com)
Source: The Nevada Independent
“BLM is far too close to the industries it’s supposed to be watching. “These are not merely probable breaches of law by private persons,” the complaint alleges, “but a pervasive pattern of lawlessness which BLM has taken affirmative steps to further and encourage.”
by John L. Smith
As an environmental protection specialist in the Bureau of Land Management’s enormous Battle Mountain District, Dan Patterson was accustomed to working under difficult conditions.
When you’re one of a handful of BLM ecologists in an area that stretches over five Nevada counties and covers 10.5 million acres, you often toil alone and can find yourself a long way from his home office in Tonopah.
But these days Patterson finds himself even further from his supervisors after filing a withering whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and Department of Interior Office of Inspector General alleging “illegalities and wrongdoing” by managers at the BLM’s Nevada state office and Battle Mountain district. Patterson’s complaint takes dead aim at the management style and decision-making of BLM Battle Mountain District Manager Doug Furtado and accuses him of abusing his authority by fast-tracking mining and oil and gas drilling projects and playing politics with enforcement, in the process violating laws and regulations meant to protect public lands. “As an Environmental Protection Specialist, Mr. Patterson’s professional responsibilities are in conflict with the objectives of District Manager Furtado,” the whistleblower’s attorney Kevin H. Bell of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) asserts in a 13-page complaint.
Read the rest of this article HERE.
The PPJ Gazette 
Feb 21, 2020 @ 13:21:11
Excerpts from the “Nevada MiningFact Sheet”:http://www.planevada.org/nevada-mining-fact-sheet/
Massive pit lakes are beingcreated in Nevada, almost all of which will have questionable water quality,and effectively none of these lakes are being planned for future public accessand use. These pit lakes represent a large loss of groundwater fromsurface evaporation, and that loss will affect water availability and springwater production for centuries. The massive quantities ofearth moved for mining — and the exposure of elements and compounds once safelyunderground to air and water — starts a chemical chain reaction that is known to pollute our streams, rivers and lakes over the long term forcenturies. EPA estimates that more than 40 percent ofwestern watersheds have been contaminated with mine waste. U.S. taxpayers tookon $2.6 billion in Superfund and other federal cleanup of mines in the pastdecade — and are on the hook for an estimated $50 billion more. Meantime, every year theindustry takes billions in gold and other hardrock minerals withoutcompensating taxpayers as a whole, states like Nevada, or covering cleanupcosts.Mining does pay sales tax and theypay certain property taxes—but not on the value of the mine or their miningclaims. Renters, the unemployed, and minimum wage workers pay sales andproperty taxes. But gold mining is different, so it should be taxed differently?Once that gold is gone, it’s gone forever. The money will be in Canadaand other foreign countries, leaving Nevada with clean up costs and massivepits. Taxpayers Picking Up theCosts The General Accounting Office has expressed strongconcerns about inadequate reclamation bonding in Nevada: “We determined that 57hardrock operations (in 12 western states) had inadequate financialassurances—amounting to about $24 million less than needed to fully coverestimated reclamation costs.” GAO, Abandoned Mines: Information on the Numberof Hardrock Mines, Cost of Cleanup, and Value of Financial Assurances,GAO-11-834T (Washington, D.C.: July 14, 2011). Nevada’s share of that $24 million is$23,853,662 (more than 99.4% of the total of the 12 western states.) According to theEnvironmental Protection Agency, the cost for cleanup of abandoned hardrockmines could run as high as $54 billion. Much of that cost could ultimately beborne by U.S. taxpayers. In spite of recordprofits by gold mining corporations, Nevada still lacks funds to pay for minesafety inspectors and top-educated and experienced mining tax auditors. According to a 2011 report from the Fraser Institute, a highly respected international researchfirm, Nevada is one of the most stable, mineral-rich, least-taxed places tomine on the planet. Making mining pay what they pay in other states orcountries would not cause them to suffer or abandon operations here. Nevada has plenty of fundsfor 10 staff at the Division of Minerals, which exists to protect and advocatefor mining corporations and which is overseen by a commission that includes mostly people on the payroll of extractiveindustries.An estimated 424,000 acres ofpublic land in Nevada – an area more than half the size of Yosemite NationalPark– have already been sold to private interests for either $2.50 or $5.00 peracre. This subsidized sale of public lands is allowed under the federal 1872 Mining Law. According to former NevadaState Archivist and historian Guy Rocha, the mining industry of NevadaTerritory was so opposed to the level of mineral extraction taxation in thedraft Nevada constitution of 1864, it compelled the constitutional delegates todraft new language that was much more favorable to the mining industry. Today, mining still bullies lawmakers inorder to protect its unique and generous tax advantages.
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Feb 12, 2020 @ 17:30:07
Warnings from wild horse and burro advocates have fallen on deaf ears
First the horses and then the livestock
The public had better act..come together and see through the smoke screen or their public lands..their heritage will be turned into a giant industrial park
‘Corrupt & Corrupter’: DC Billboard Ridicules Trump and Bernhardt as Two Greedy Idiots Destroying US Public Lands for Fossil Fuel Profits
“This billboard, which should turn some heads, would be funny if so much wasn’t at stake.”
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
Specifically citing Bernhardt’s subservience to big oil and gas interests that puts the nation’s public land, air, and water at risk, the billboard highlights how Bernhardt—a former lobbyist—has allowed previous clients of his, including the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), to directly influence decision-making and policy at Interior, which manages the nation’s public lands.
“To hold the dubious honor of being President Trump’s most corrupt and conflicted cabinet member takes some serious swampiness,” said Jayson O’Neill, deputy director of the Western Values Project. “But Secretary Bernhardt keeps one-upping Trump’s other swampy members by allowing his former clients, like IPAA, to influence nearly every decision at Interior related to public lands, wildlife, and resources. There is still a chance for Congress to save America’s outdoor heritage and hold Secretary Bernhardt accountable for turning Interior into his own personal lobby shop.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/09/corrupt-corrupter-dc-billboard-ridicules-trump-and-bernhardt-two-greedy-idiots
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Feb 12, 2020 @ 14:22:09
The Mustang Conspiracy – Part 1
Part one covers the history of the BLM’s lies and provides the factual counterpoint to those lies from a former BLM employee, Craig Downer, who quit in disgust and has proven the BLM’s data is false. Part one also covers the investigations into the bogus data used to support these lies, via FOIA work done by a private citizen, Cindy MacDonald, that shows what the true motivations are behind these heinous acts. We’ll also get a glimpse into George’s 20 plus year investigation of this activity , the truth about the horses, their land and how it’s been handed over to Big Agriculture (Corporate Cattle Ranches) and Big Oil, all at the expense of the U.S. Tax Payer and in violation of U.S. Federal Law.
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Feb 12, 2020 @ 13:46:13
Trump’s Environmental Review Rollbacks Will Put Ranchers in Charge of Public Lands
FEBRUARY 4, 2020
by TALASI BROOKS
President Trump’s proposed new rollbacks of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations will not only accelerate destructive infrastructure projects, they will also cut environmental concerns out of decision-making for livestock grazing on millions of acres of public lands. Where environmental reviews do occur, the new regulations hamstring public participation and give an outsized voice to ranchers and other locally-powerful interests. That’s why industry voices like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association have been applauding the changes: They hand over control of the public lands to private ranching interests for a pittance—$1.35 per animal use month—a steal of a deal for the ranchers and a ripoff for the American public.
Trump’s proposed NEPA regulations represent nothing more than a stealth effort to privatize the public lands by putting the ranchers in charge of them, and the American public shouldn’t stand for it.
Comments on the proposed changes are due March 10, 2020.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/04/trumps-environmental-review-rollbacks-will-put-ranchers-in-charge-of-public-lands/
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Feb 11, 2020 @ 03:50:39
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/02/09/nevada-lithium-mine-environmental-investigation-bureau-land-management-100595?fbclid=IwAR3QGl6JbzkaEWzu5RNYUIul8ptWvXZhnBsFEOR1V6zGwqSHyJNz8WvglDQ
More info.
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Feb 10, 2020 @ 19:55:14
So wrong and so glad there is still someone who cares enough to exercise his democratic rights to stand up for much needed reform!
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