The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) withdrew the proposed rule to establish Natural Asset Companies (NACs) on Wall Street on Jan. 17. The withdrawn rule drew criticism from U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) due to its potential impact on her home state of Wyoming.
According to the Federal Newswire, which cited E&E News, Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG) had introduced the platform idea for nature conservation investors two years ago. Backed by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and entities such as the Rockefeller Foundation, it aimed to allocate conservation funds in a dedicated space. However, the proposal was criticized for potentially allowing investors and governments to profit from natural resources.
Fence Post reported that the NAC initiative sought to enable the exchange of unspecified "rights" to various private and public lands, extending even to foreign nations and noncitizens. The article argued that this would have resulted in halting all economic activities on these properties, including national parks, national forests, and privately owned lands with conservation easements.
Hageman stated in Fence Post that NACs would have allowed assets from Federal lands or private lands with conservation easements to be sold to private investors. "Those could be foreign governments, it could be the Chinese Communist Party, it could be foreign nationals, but they would sell these companies or the interest in these companies and these natural assets and the purpose would be to stop all future development and use of these lands."
Hageman further said that this move would have significantly affected Wyoming. She elaborated, "In Wyoming, for example, 48% of our surface estate is owned by the federal government. We have 9.2 million acres of National Forest Service lands and what they could do is they could sell the natural assets to say Shoshone National Park or Shoshone National Forest or Yellowstone National Park to Bill Gates. And then Bill Gates would have the right to be able to determine how those lands would be managed, but in no way could there be any kind of grazing, any kind of oil and gas development, any kind of mining, anything that would actually generate revenue. So, this was a scam from the beginning."
According to her website, Hageman represents Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives. She holds degrees from Casper College and the University of Wyoming and has been a litigator for 34 years. In Congress, her focus is on ensuring legislative authority and protecting citizens' constitutional rights.
