I’ve watched with ironic amusem*nt as a mob of self-anointed “conservationists” tries to set aside much of the Dolores River watershed as a national monument. The irony arises from their protestations that their actions are pure and selfless, aimed at saving the area from despoliation, when in reality they’re just trying to commandeer a playground for their own enjoyment. And heck with any productive uses of the land.
Back in the dark ages, I foolishly attended law school. While there I took a class in public lands and learned about the Antiquities Act, which authorizes presidents to designate national monuments unilaterally and without congressional oversight. I wondered why that astonishing loophole was included in the Act, because it was an open invitation to abuse.
The Antiquities Act, enacted in 1906, was designed to allow what amounted to emergency protection for real antiquities and areas of scientific importance: Native American archaeological sites, historically important battlefields, and so on. And its scope was limited. Presidents were only supposed to designate so much territory as was necessary to preserve the values sought to be protected.
With the advent of radical environmentalism and the collusion of left-wing presidents, that limitation has fallen by the wayside. Witness Jimmy Carter’s designation of huge areas of Alaska and Barack Obama’s designation of the Bear’s Ears monument in Utah.
Those oversized designations are perversions of the Act.
It’s time to amend the Antiquities Act by removing presidential authority to make national monument designations, and to reserve that authority solely to Congress. Because that’s where the authority should have lain in the first place.
And when it comes to the current effort to seize the Dolores country ... well, what’s next? Set aside the entire state of Wyoming as a national monument?
GREG CORLE
Grand Junction
‘Better off?’ question posed by GOP is easy to answer
Are you better off than you were four years ago? How the Trump campaign and its allies can ask this question with a straight face is beyond comprehension.
Four years ago we had a president who admitted that he downplayed COVID because it might hurt his reelection, who suggested that we ingest bleach as a cure or insert ultraviolet light in our bodies, who told us time and again that COVID was no worse than the flu and would go away in the spring. Millions died because he ignored facts and lived in an alternative reality.
What has happened during the Biden administration since Trump? Millions of jobs have been created. Our economy is the best in the world. Infrastructure that was talked about by Trump is now being built. NATO and our standing in the world has never been stronger. We have the best military and are leaders in every area of culture, including the arts. We are finally addressing climate change, which was denied by Trump. The stock market has made unheard of gains. People’s savings invested in the market, including their 401ks and IRAs, have made money they never imagined. Sure there is still inflation but it has decreased dramatically in the past two years and wages are outpacing inflation.
Has anyone ever asked Trump what he would do about inflation? He has no plan and never has had one. He wants to impose gigantic tariffs on goods from China and other countries that will only make prices increase. He wants to deplete our workforce by deporting undocumented immigrants, which will only increase the cost of labor.
This man who has been found liable for massive fraud on banks and insurance companies, who has been found liable for sexual assault and defamation, who faces 88 felony counts and couldn’t qualify for any job that would require a background check, who tanked a border bill that was sponsored by conservative senators is the guy who Republicans think would make a good president? What reality do they live in?
GLENN WHITAKER
Glade Park
High landfill fees promote illegal dumping in desert
Mesa County Landfill recently raised its standard dumping rate to $20 a load. Not long ago an average load cost $5. Then it rose to $10 a load and shortly thereafter to the current $20 minimum, doubling the fee twice.
What this will cause is trash being thrown out into the desert and elsewhere. Clifton, which encircles a lot of low-income housing, doesn’t even have a spring cleanup like Grand Junction does. I know many people who find a $20 fee for dumping trash to be beyond their means. The average minimum wage earner has to consider the cost of fuel to get to the dump as well as cost for dumping trash. I would think if Mesa County doesn’t want trash left about or thrown onto BLM land, it would subsidize the cost, if necessary, to keep it low. Easy access and low fees invites people to bring their trash and unwanted items to the dump. This would help keep America beautiful.
ADELE MILLER
Clifton
RMHP plays instrumental role in valley’s well-being
Thank you Rocky Mountain Health Plans for being a great community partner and contributing dollars, time and leadership into building an accessible, high quality and safe mental health care system.
As a local provider of mental health care services to youth, families and adults with developmental disabilities, we are seeing first-hand the dire need that exists in our community. We are so fortunate to have strong public and private partnerships to address the significant rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, addiction and chronic mental health issues here. Rocky Mountain Health Plans is a critical investor in many of the innovative programs and services being offered here. These issues are complex and require a range of services and providers to mange it effectively.
Rocky Mountain Health Plans has proven time and again that they are valued community members and not just another insurance company.
REBECCA HOBART, LCSW
Fruita
Industrial decarbonization projects get needed boost
Industries including cement, glass, metals and chemical manufacturing represent approximately one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions. That is why people and organizations in the industrial decarbonization sector are so excited about the $6 billion federal investment dollars toward decarbonization projects.
This $6 billion does not include the leverage of $14 billion in private capital. In a Volts podcast, Rebecca Dell from ClimateWorks Foundation and Evan Gillespie, co-founder of Industrious Labs, discuss these recent grants. These projects will allow us to compete in the next generation of clean technologies and make manufacturing independent from supply chain disruptions. If we want to attract innovative manufacturing, we must invest in a robust supply of green electricity.
Take steel for example. It’s everywhere. It requires purified iron ore. We have access to iron ore in the Iron Mountain district in southwest Utah and a train transportation distribution asset (the majority of iron ore deposits are located in the Great Lakes region.)
Coal-dependent iron ore blast furnaces use coal to purify the iron ore, resulting in CO2 emissions. Blast furnaces also require expensive resurfacing approximately every 20 years. When the newer generation gas furnaces are in use you can replace that gas with hydrogen. When you combine the green hydrogen with a shaft furnace running on clean electricity, you eliminate up to 97% of emissions. Because you are using a hydrogen reduction process to break apart the iron oxide, the resulting emissions are H2O (water vapor). Maybe a steel mill isn’t affordable for the Grand Valley (they cost billions of dollars) but it is a good example of what the future may look like, and how we can compete and benefit both economically and environmentally.
TANYA TRAVIS
Grand Junction
Wage theft in Colorado hurts all of us
Low-wage laborers in Colorado experience wage theft amounting to $728 million a year, according to the Colorado Fiscal Institute. A bill to rectify this is advancing in the Legislature. If these workers got that extra $728 million and spent it into Colorado’s economy, we’d all be better off. When employers steal from their workers, they steal from all of us. Such behavior needs to be addressed and punished. This is how “trickle down” works, or actually it doesn’t work and never has.
Time to raise the taxes on the cheats and restore America’s middle class, reduce housing and food costs so people can “live” and not just “survive.”
JUDITH ZITKO
Grand Junction
