Koch-Backed Group Calls For No More National Park

[Tom Joad]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...usaolp00000592

Read my lips, no more parks.

In an op-ed published in Tuesday’s New York Times, Reed Watson, the executive director at the Koch-backed Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), along with a research associate at the Center, call for no more national parks, citing the backlog in maintenance for existing parks.

“True conservation is taking care of the land and water you already have, not insatiably acquiring more and hoping it manages itself,” the op-ed reads. “Let’s maintain what we’ve already got, so we can protect it properly,” it concludes.

While the authors seem to push for “true conservation” from the federal government, in reality, PERC has a long history of advocating for the privatization of America’s national parks and other public lands, and has significant ties to the Koch brothers and fossil fuel industries.

PERC, which labels itself as “a property rights and environmental organization,” has received significant contributions from Koch-backed organizations, including from Donors Trust, which has been called the “dark-money ATM of the right.” Additionally, Watson, the lead author of the op-ed and current PERC Executive Director, previously worked at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, and in a 2009 op-ed criticized a number of bipartisan bills to protect wilderness, arguing that “land management agencies [should] turn a profit” by removing restrictions on timber and energy development.

[donquixote99]

Sequester their budgets, then pounce on them for deferred maintenance? Cute.

Everything doesn't have to turn a profit. That's just market cult. I'm sure it would suit the Kochs though if the parks got user-fees that kept the non-rich out....

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

I'm sure it would suit the Kochs though if the parks got user-fees that kept the non-rich out....

Chump change. What they want is the minerals, petroleum and timber. It makes them crazy when they think of all the re$ource$ locked away in parks and wilderness areas.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Chump change. What they want is the minerals, petroleum and timber. It makes them crazy when they think of all the re$ource$ locked away in parks and wilderness areas.

There it is.

These guys don't give a shit about parks.

Number one, they don't strike me as the outdoorsy type.

And number two, their own private walled estates are bigger than a lot of parks and they have security systems and guards to keep the riff raff out.

[Dondilion]

Originally Posted by Boreas

It makes them crazy when they think of all the re$ource$ locked away in parks and wilderness areas.

Driving them real crazy!