WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's Interior Department today released a report highlighting areas in America which deserve increased protection by Congress. House Republicans have proposed to sell off America's public lands, and have pushed for huge giveaways of America's last special places to oil and mining companies.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the management of America's public lands, released the following statement on the report:
"We need to get our priorities straight about America's public lands, and the Obama administration is putting us on the right path. We should conserve our public lands for future generations, not hold a fire sale of our last remaining wilderness areas, as some Republican leaders in Washington have suggested. Instead of protecting big oil's profits, Congress should be protecting our nation's most precious and beautiful wilderness lands and waters.
"After more than a decade of rampant oil and gas production on public lands, resulting in record fossil fuel production, it is finally time to accomplish something on the conservation side of the ledger."
