The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) advanced a model state bill regarding Natural Asset Companies (NAC) at their annual meeting.

According to the American Stewards of Liberty (ASL), an anti-NAC model state bill was advanced out of committee. The model bill was titled “Protect America’s Lands Act”, first spearheaded by Craig Rucker (President of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and was introduced at the ALEC by South Dakota State Representative Julie Auch. 

Rucker and Rep. Auch are members of ASL’s Property Rights Task Force. The bill passed out of ALEC’s Environment, Energy, and Agriculture Task Force with member consent, but the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and the Washington Policy Center both oppose the bill.

The Protect America’s Lands Act (H.R.7494) aims to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to “prohibit exchanges from effecting transactions in securities issued by natural asset companies and for other purposes.” The act aims at defining a “natural asset company” further to extend the definition to any company that has control over, is controlled by, or is under common control with another company that meets the definition criteria. 

In a press release, U.S. Sen. John Barasso (R-WY) said “ongoing efforts to bring NACs to the market would hurt responsible land and resource management activities. Our legislation makes sure greedy exchanges and radical climate elitists are not able to take our public lands hostage and disrupt our way of life in Wyoming.” 

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) also said  “Allowing NACs to be listed on stock exchanges would create a backdoor way for activist liberal investors to implement the Green New Deal by locking up millions of acres of land. The people of Wyoming will always be the best stewards of our land, not activists and certainly not foreign nationals.”

The American Stewards of Liberty are a nonprofit organization that aims to protect Americans’ individual rights through property rights over the past 30 years. ASL targets policies that specifically uproot Americans’ production of food, fiber, minerals, or energy, and target radical environmental policies. ASL stands for John Adams’ quote: “Private property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.”.