[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ENVIRONMENTAL ARROGANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Utah [Mr. Hansen] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I chair the Subcommittee on National Parks, 
Forests and Lands. In the early 1970's, Congress passed a law called 
the National Environmental Protection Act, and in 1976, the FLPMA Act 
on other areas that would take care of the public lands. We determined 
there that anything that happened on public lands, that the public 
would have some input on it. They would have the opportunity to have 
hearings; anybody, they would have the opportunity to challenge what 
the Government did, so it would be adequately done without some high-
handed individual coming along and shoving something down the throat of 
the population.
  That was probably a pretty good piece of legislation. I mentioned, I 
chair the subcommittee, and every time we have a bill, and, Mr. 
Speaker, we have probably had more hearings than any other subcommittee 
on the Hill, the administration comes up. Here comes the BLM, here 
comes the Forest Service, here comes in Department of Reclamation. They 
say, ``Mr. Chairman, there has to be more public input on this bill. We 
have to have more time for the public to have due process on this bill. 
You have got to be here and listen to these things.''
  I agree with most of that. People should have input. In the little 
State of Utah that I represent, as two other Members represent, we have 
some beautiful areas. We have six national monuments and a number of 
national parks. We have Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion, a piece of 
the Grand Canyon; we have some beautiful areas. Out of that, it seems 
like my friends from the East always want to come out and tell us how 
to determine our own lives.
  Surprisingly enough, yesterday the President of the United States 
stood on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and announced a national 
monument in Utah of 2 million acres, 2 million acres. That is the size 
of Delaware. That is the size of Yellowstone National Park.
  Lo and behold, guess who he told about it? Absolutely no one. The 
Governor of the State was not made aware, the two Senators were not 
made aware, the Members of the House, including of his own party, were 
not made aware. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the 
House, the legislature, and the county commissioners, nobody was told 
except President Clinton decided he wanted to do it.
  This particular area has the largest coal reserve there is in the 
history, anywhere we can find in America. There is enough coal in the 
ground for the energy of Utah for 1,000 years, low-sulfur coal, which 
can be mined environmentally sound. In this area happens to be 10 
cities; the first time that I know of that 10 cities now find 
themselves in a national park with the stroke of a pen.
  How did he get the right to use that pen? He got the right because of 
the antiquated Antiquities Act of 1906, which said the President could 
preserve and protect Indian ruins. That was the theory behind it, 
Indian ruins; not saying you could go create things bigger than about 
every park, bigger than a lot of States. No, that was not the idea.
  But the extreme environmental community, who wants to kill our 
timber, wants to kill our mining, wants to keep people from going into 
the wilderness and enjoying it and fishing, hunting, standing there and 
looking at God's beauty, no, we do not get to do that, because the 
President of the United States, in his great, wonderful, awesome 
wisdom, greater than anybody, he had the right to say this beautiful 
area should be reserved.

  Let me ask something, has the President been there? Has the President 
seen it? No, the President does not even know where it is. He could not 
come within 500 miles of it if you put a map down in front of him. That 
does stop him from coming in and signing the Antiquities law and 
saying, let us take care of this. Does that smack anybody of being 
political, considering that the environmental community is putting 
millions of dollars in this reelection? Does that smack anybody of that 
at all? Why did he not just wait? Why did he not wait until after, 
sitting down as we have down with every other park and national 
monument in the history of the State, in the history of the United 
States, and say, let us work this out?
  No, I have never, in 26 years as an elected official, as past Speaker 
of the House of the State of Utah, I have never seen such arrogance in 
my life. I am totally disappointed in what happened.
  What will this cost of the children of Utah? One billion dollars, $1 
billion they are not going to get for education. What is this going to 
cost the little State of Utah, the Governor and his legislature? Six 
and one-half billion dollars. Tell me why? What is the reason behind 
this? I am really disappointed at this high-handed attitude that 
emanates from the White House. I surely think that the people of the 
West have just been written off.

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