Not a Tortoise, Fracking Millions Behind BLM Evicting NV Rancher, BLM Wants That Land
The Bureau of Land Management claims to be evicting the Bundy cattle from public land for which he has a legal permit to use for the benefit of a tortoise. They are spending incredible amounts of money and have 200 or more armed enforcement officers with vehicles dedicated to the removal of these cattle. Are they simply warm and fuzzy environmental do-gooders or could there be more to the story?
Yes, there could be a lot more. A lot of potentially very profitable fracking leases, with exploratory drilling already being conducted. The money BLM gets from cattle is nothing compared to what they can generate with oil leases.
While the tortoises are incapable of representing themselves as to whether they would prefer the risk presented by a herd of cattle to that of fleets of trucks and fracking rigs, one has to believe the impact imposed by the cattle would be significantly lower.
Fracking requires a lot of trucks and trailers, carrying fresh water in, and transporting waste water back out. The recovered oil product will also need to be carried out by truck and the transportation of the equipment itself. No pipelines exist in these areas, trucks carry everything. Roads will have to be built.
This map from the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology shows significant exploratory drilling being carried out in exactly the same area, “Gold Butte,” from which the offending Bundy cattle are being rounded up.
Oil has been found in nearby areas and may already have been discovered in Gold Butte as well.
The markings on the map indicate oil exploration sites, with the red markings identifying actual oil and gas drilling operations.
Two weeks ago it was reported in ShaleReporter.com that the BLM struck it rich with the issuance of $1.27 million in Nevada oil and gas leases, at a recent auction in Reno.
It is indeed fortunate for the BLM that these tortoises only recently became endangered by the cattle the Bundy family has been running in that area for generations. Had the same “risks” posed now succeeded in killing off the tortoises years ago, opposing the interests of the small-time cattle rancher would have been more difficult. There’s nothing like an environmental premise as a foundation for effective tyranny.
Naturally, the coexistence of the Bundy cattle and the desert tortoise for all of these years does call into question the legitimacy of the government position and the validity of the supposed threat the cattle pose.
The Huffington Post exposed the federal hypocrisy and outright lies. Their report from August of last year details how a lack of funding was being faulted for plans to kill the tortoises being held in a 220 acre conservation center in the same area.
Given the incredible amount of manpower and equipment being used to evict the Bundys, one wonders how long the tortoise center could have remained operational if that money had merely been spent on what the Feds now claim to be the actual motive of their operations.
One also wonders if they still plan to kill of the tortoises, is there any other rational explanation for the Bundy evictions?
If the decision has been made that the tortoises must go, and there isn’t oil to be drilled, why can’t the Bundy’s stay?
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