William Perry Pendley
During the Vice-Presidential candidates debate last month Republican J.D. Vance raised the idea that we can solve the housing crisis in part by selling off public land.
His view seems to be a very eastern America idea.
“Well, what Donald Trump has said is we have a lot of federal lands that are not being used for anything,” he said. “They’re not being used for a national park … and they could be places where we build a lot of housing.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz challenged him immediately. First, he pointed out, there isn’t a lot of public land around Minneapolis where there is a need for more housing. There isn’t much public land around most of our cities in the east, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Boston.
But there is a lot of public land right around us in Boise. Perhaps Vance would sell off large chucks of the Boise foothills public estate. Or maybe around Salt Lake City?
The Idaho and Utah Legislatures have repeatedly tried to get ownership of the larger portions of the state in public ownership. Now the Utah Legislature has a lawsuit to try to get the very right-wing Supreme Court to reverse more than 200 years of precedent saying only the federal government has the power to sell off its public land.
Walz, a hunter, take a more traditional view of the value of America’s public land.
“I worry about this, as someone who cares deeply about our national parks and our federal lands,” Walz said. “Look, Minnesota, we protect these things. We’ve got about 20% of the world’s freshwater. These lands protect, they’re there for a reason, they belong to all of us.”
I covered dozens of hours of debate in the Idaho Legislature and listened to all of the legal arguments. I am not worried that even this Supreme Court is going to say that the states can control public lands instead of Congress.
Congress approved the Sabtini-Burton Act in 1980 that allowed public lands around Las Vegas to grow with the proceeds going to conservation. Democrat Sen. Harry Reid expanded the program in 1998 the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.
I have no illusions that Donald Trump won’t allow people like William Perry Pendley to turn over our lands to corporate powers for all kinds of mischief. I interviewed him in 2019 when he had the audacity to tell us he NEVER said he was Bureau of Land Management Director. Trump had appointed him director and Congress said they would never approve his selection.
Trump even has proposed 10 “freedom cities” on undeveloped public lands. Perhaps he will build these communities using Idaho water that he has moved from the Snake and Columbia rivers.
People in Las Vegas or other western cities might want to expand into public lands in the future. Congress, and only Congress can make that decision. I am doubtful Idahoans want to turn the foothills into more tracts of houses.
Even if they do, wildfires are going to make them hard to protect.
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