This week Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced, as I had predicted, that the Bush administration would not seek to overturn any of Bill Clinton's national monument designations. In his improper use of the "Antiquities Act" Bill Clinton tied up millions of acres of federal land as national monuments and made them off-limits to mining and commercial activity--mostly during his last year in office. The most outrageous was his 1996 designation of the 1.7-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which Clinton created in southern Utah to make sure its mother load of sulfur-free coal deposits never reaches the markets. It now looks as if this action was a payoff to the Riady family who funneled Chinese campaign contributions into the Clinton coffers. The Riady family controls the only other source of low sulfur coal in the world. Norton claimed that Clinton’s actions could not be undone, but she is lying. President Bush could use the same Executive Order power to undo the designation if he chose to. Instead Norton said the best they can do is try to adjust boundaries and alter the rules--slim recompense for this massive taking of property rights.

===================

Forwarded by Greater Things News Service
http://www.greaterthings.com/News

============================

Bcc (blind carbon copy) recipients:
Along with the subscribed recipients, I have hand selected several Bcc recipients including yourself. If you do not wish to receive any further e-mail from me, please reply to this message with "REMOVE" in the subject line.