Outdoors industry muscles into politics
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
The backcountry can be a great place to escape – except when it comes to politics.
That’s especially true in western swing states such as Nevada and Colorado where political experts and special interest groups are already trying to galvanize allies and marginalize enemies for the 2016 campaign cycle.
And when it comes to winning votes from outdoors enthusiasts public lands become the political battlefield.
Look no further than a recent push from the Outdoor Industry Association to highlight swing state voters’ affinity for keeping public land in Nevada and Colorado in the hands of the federal government.
Turning over public lands to states for management is a HUGE mistake IMHO
What could ever go wrong?
Because the Feds do SUCH an exceptional job of managing resources. . .
*snort*
P.S. Did you hear? The EPA did it again? First the massive toxic spill at the Silverton mine, then a few weeks later near Crested Butte.
They kept it pretty quiet. The peasants don’t need to hear such things.
Ok dog, how about the oil spill in Alaska done by a dude, in private industry, who decided to drink on the job and hit a reef spilling millions of gallons of crude into the pristine marine environment, or the BP disaster in the gulf, yes, a few human deaths and the destruction of millions of marine life lost, not to mention the loss of jobs, communities, ya, there are disasters across the board but personally ill trust the government to deal with the mistakes made. If the government didnt insist that the disasters I listed above were cleaned up and the people who lost everything were compensated im SURE AS H€(( certain the industry would have walked away shrugging their collective shoulders saying “$h(t. H@pp€ns”.
Keep onpointing those fingers …….your specialty……
I believe the Feds stepped in when the state dropped the ball for cleanup.
You’re bringing up something that happened in 1989? That’s the best you’ve got?
Welcome to the 21st century. Things have changed.
Thats all you got dogzilla? Hahaha. BP was in 2010
Hmmm, you are right, the states and industry (private)have horrible track records for taking responsibility without the federal/EPA laws in place to protect our Public Lands. Dosent matter if it was in 1989 or 2010.
YOU PEOPLE ELECTED THESE DESPOTS!!!
Remind yourselves that 20, 30, 40 years means nothing to you…well that’s obviously a mistake as here you all are…right in the middle of the mess “they” made 20, 30, 40 years ago and still denying responsibility in any way…talk to your parents who did this and prepare yourselves to answer the same questions in a few years from your children and grandchildren.
Was reminded today of another private industry travesty that was rectified by the EPA for the better. It was called DDT
sure am glad the federal government stepped into that mess…
Nevada and Colorado are controlled by the military.
Oh you say the military is Federal.
Well here we go again, chasing our collective tails, the Military controls Nevada and Colorado, period.
Bats…DDT ? a pesticide?
Bats…O I C…
Dog. Some of the environmental disasters brought you by corporate America are the “gifts” that keep giving.
BP Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico ~ ongoing.
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone from Chemical & Nitrogen run off ~ ongoing.
Three Mile Island radiation leak 1979 ~ Unit 2 Reactor is still shut down.
Love Canal Toxic Waste Dump ~ ongoing.
WR Grace Asbestos Contamination ~ ongoing.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill ~ ongoing
Lead Contamination in Pitcher Oklahoma ~ ongoing.
Massey Energy Coal Slurry Spill ~ ongoing.
West Fertilizer Plant Explosion ~ ongoing.
Freedom Industries Elk River Spill ~ ongoing.
Cuyahoga River Fire from Unrestricted Industrial Dumping 1969 – fish returned in 1998 and Bald Eagles in 2006.
For the record, the Swiss invented DDT in the late 1870’s. Monsanto, Montrose & Velsicol were the major producers of DDT in the United States. In 1972 the United States started restrictions on DDT due to environmental and health risks.
Remember, Richard Nixon started the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.
So dawg, the EPA created a toxic pond? The EPA ‘did it’.
Riiiiiight.
“You’re bringing up something that happened in 1989? That’s the best you’ve got?
Welcome to the 21st century. Things have changed.”
DDT??? BFD!!! You know, Billy and Rock…if we didn’t have pesky gub’mint reguluhmation this stuff wouldn’t even be am issue.
3 mile island would just be ‘free light’. Love Canal would be a city park…(really…Hooker Chemical tried to give it to the city for just that purpose-mighty white of them, eh?). Prince William Sound would’ve never made the news, schools would be named for Halliburton, except there’d be no need for schools because kids would be all Appalachian-like from eating lead paint from the peeling windowsills, eating mercury in their tuna fish/dolphin-salad and drinking poisoned formula from Nestle(they’re still selling it in the 3rd world), and everyone knows you can’t teach a drooler to read. We still wouldn’t have seatbelts in cars or Halloween costumes that won’t go up in flames(…oh wait, never mind about that).
The problem isn’t corporate activity, it’s you people…you, you, you anti-freedom, anti-business, anti-American pro regulation whiner-butts. Jesus!
Hmmm, I love sarcasm
what sarcasm?