Lawmakers on Land Bill
Is it a land grab or a the most significant conservation effort in a generation? Depends on who you ask. The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have passed an extensive land act that President Obama just signed into law.
What is it and how did our lawmakers vote?
The answers in this Fact Finder Report
It's called the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. It's actually a collection of more than 160 bills. Among other things, it designates 2 million acres of federal lands as wilderness areas, preventing oil and gas development. This includes land in Michigan and eight other states. More than eleven thousand acres of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are on the list.
The act was just signed into law by President Obama. Support from lawmakers from northern Michigan was split, but not in the way you might think. Democratic senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin both supported the bill, but democratic congressman Bart Stupak joined republican congressmen Dave Camp and Pete Hoekstra in voting against it.
Congressman Hoekstra's main complaint is that he says it "prevents enormous opportunities to explore energy in America."
Congressman Dave Camp agrees saying "the bill would have prevented us from tapping domestic supplies of energy under 3.3 million acres of public land."
And while Congressman Bart Stupak also voted against it, he said "there are some good things about this bill, such as it would make it easier for Keweenaw National Historic Park to operate and expand." But he said he couldn't vote yes because it would have designated more than eleven thousand acres at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore as a wilderness area, and that didn't have local support.
Would you have supported it? Which is more important, preserving wilderness area, or protecting energy exploration?
So despite a no vote from our congressmen, the measure was approved by President Obama.
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