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Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today criticized the Obama Administration’s unilateral decision to withdraw 303,900 acres in six western states, including 60,395 acres in Nevada, from new mining claims in favor of solar energy development. The public land order was announced by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in a news dump on Friday, July 5 and touted as part of President Obama’s newly unveiled plan to bypass Congress on carbon dioxide regulation.   

“If the administration thought this was anything that could withstand scrutiny, they would not announce it on the Friday of a holiday weekend,” said Amodei. “This is yet another case of ‘Washington knows best’ policy imposed on Nevada from 2,500 miles away. I apologize to all westerners for the fact that although it takes years to get a federal land use permit -- and our region is under serious federal administrative scrutiny for a myriad of resource issues -- this administration has no hesitation to pick land use winners without anything resembling public participation, or adherence to the present permitting process. Industries in the West like agriculture, other energy technologies, recreation, and mining are certainly shaking their heads at this new level of arrogance and transparency that resembles lead.”

The public land order extends the establishment of “Solar Energy Zones’ and withdraws for 20 years the acreage on lands managed by BLM in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah in the name of the President’s political end-around Congress. The announcement specifically singles out new mining claims, emphasizing the administration’s preference for solar development.

“The federal government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers, especially when it’s track record for doing so is abysmal,” said Amodei. “You would think that billions of taxpayer dollars lost, expensive energy, and few jobs to show for it would be enough to dissuade them from a solar policy that has been an unmitigated failure.”

Amodei cited the numerous cases, such as Solyndra, Abound Solar, and other politically-connected firms that received billions of dollars in loan guarantees and grants from the Department of Energy (DOE) only to go bankrupt. He also mentioned the Crescent Dunes solar plant in Nye County, which received a $737 million loan guarantee from DOE and produced 45 permanent jobs at a cost of $16.3 million per job, as an example of why the administration’s solar policy is misguided.

“I favor an all of the above energy approach and like everybody I want to see energy development that is cleaner and more efficient, however, when the national debt is bigger than our entire economy and we’re trying to figure out how to meet our essential obligations, you should stop creating land use executive policy for your pals. Washington needs to stop picking winners and losers, because when it comes down to which industry provides the most bang for the buck in terms of jobs, tax revenue, and the responsible use of raw materials, we need to give priority to objective fact. The administration is interfering with the market at the worst possible time and it is interfering with the livelihood of western states without so much as giving the people who live and work there a heads up.”      

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