Dear Editor,
I recently returned from the Pacific Northwest from visiting family members and was dismayed to learn that the “progressive” Grand County Council voted 4-3 in favor of the BLM’s Master Leasing Plan. For those council members who did not support the plan, my utmost regards and thanks because you recognized the far-reaching economic impact to our citizens.
Billions of economic-sustaining dollars will be lost because the BLM plan is too restrictive and biased in regards to mineral and energy extraction. Go take a look at the tax rolls and you will see that the money the extraction industries bring into our county is huge.
The progressive majority council members continue to ignore this important fact, as evidenced by their continued voting record against such activities. They and their supporters claim to be a huge majority and that the local citizens want this but they are wrong. Filing spurious legal complaints and slandering anyone who disagrees appears to be a favorite tactic of the progressive crowd. (Attack the person rather than the issue.) We are lucky to have three people who are trying to lookout for the citizens here in Grand County.
I keep reading letters in the papers touting a clean energy agenda and that the county needs to be proactive in protecting our surrounding public lands from dirty energy development. The outright lies and shoddy research being told has been a consistent staple of misinformation, be it political or otherwise. There is no such thing as clean energy because the ingredients for those technologies must be obtained from the “so-called dirty energy of the earth,” which Grand County has a significant portion of.
Once again, our council leadership has betrayed us by not looking out for the people’s best interest. If our progressive county council members think you can have long-term sustainable services and a manageable tax burden without a balanced BLM plan, which includes mineral and energy extraction on public lands, they are deluding themselves, and unfortunately it is going to cost the local taxpayers dearly.
