Cloaking as a conservation agenda, the Biden Administration has been working to lock-up 30 percent of America’s land, water and oceans by 2030. It has made progress by circumventing Congress, redirecting funds, and changing objectives of existing programs to reach the goal.

One purpose of the ‘30x30’ program was exposed when Wall Street attempted to create “Natural Asset Companies” on the New York Stock Exchange. This would have provided a vehicle for protected lands to be listed as assets where private investors, including foreign investors, would profit. Thankfully, the agenda was exposed by members of Congress and state leaders, which prompted withdrawal of the application at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, a more dangerous purpose behind the 30x30 land grab has gone largely unnoticed. In 2023, the White House released a plan to add a new line-item to the federal balance sheet titled “Natural Capital Accounts (NCAs).” The accounts will hold the value of natural assets such as land, water, air, as well as a new arbitrarily determined value for natural processes such as pollination and photosynthesis.

Described as “environmental services,” this new asset class will serve to inflate U.S. net wealth ostensibly for debt servicing purposes, creating unprecedented market distortions subject to political agendas. It also creates a path for the federal government to claim ownership of assets on private lands through federal conservation programs, without the landowners’ consent.

The White House plan would also add the value of private land owned by every American to the NCA line item. In April, the Administration issued a press release noting that the value of private land in America is estimated to be worth $32 trillion, and would “increase” the U.S. net wealth by 30% if scored as a U.S. asset. According to a document linked to the press release, the White House concludes that “… our results underscore the potential importance of private land as a quantitatively significant asset on our national balance sheet ….”

This makes clear the 30x30 agenda is not about conservation, but is instead a path to gain control over America’s natural resources, including conscripting private property as collateral for the national debt. This infringement on constitutionally protected property rights must be rolled-back by Congress, and the budget reconciliation process may be the best opportunity for Congress to act. A list of actions that may be taken in the reconciliation process is provided in the accompanying list.

Margaret Byfield is Executive Director, American Stewards of Liberty

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Steps to prevent nationalization of private lands:

1. Rescind Section 216 of Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” (86 Fed. Reg. 7,619) directing federal agencies to “conserve at least 30 percent of America’s land and oceans by 2030.”
2. Rescind the Department of the Interior Mineral Withdrawal Secretarial Orders, such as ANWR, offshore leasing, and Boundary Waters, issued under the 30x30 agenda and reopen these areas to development.
3. Reduce land conservation programs, which artificially increase prices and make it difficult for landowners to produce America’s foods and goods without federal funding. This can be done by: (1) Rescinding all funds allocated through the Inflation Reduction Act; (2) Reducing the acreage that can be enrolled in a conservation program within a county to 10 percent, and; (3) Limiting participants to enrollment in only one program at a time. 
4. Sunset conservation easements after 15 years or less, and phase out existing federally held and funded easements after 30 years.
5. Stop the strategy to monetize and transfer natural assets to government by prohibiting funding for the “White House Strategy for Environmental-Economic Decisions,” (SEED) and for development of the pilot test accounts.
6. Prohibit funds for any program that relies on the United Nation’s System of Environmental Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) to determine the value of natural processes and environmental services.
7. Prohibit listing private property as a U.S. asset on the federal balance sheet.
8. Prohibit funds to authorize investment products such as “Natural Asset Companies” by adopting the language of H.R. 7494, the “Protect the American Lands Act,” that amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prohibit exchanges from effecting transactions in securities issued by Natural Asset Companies, or similar vehicles.
9. Stop the monetization of environmental services by rescinding the USDA “Sustainability Targets in Agriculture to Incentivize Natural Solutions (SUSTAINS) Act of 2021.”
10. Prohibit funds for administrative designations of special purpose lands without Congressional approval, such as for national monuments and conservation leases on federal lands. This can be done by amending the “Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act” (ANILCA) to extend the existing prohibition in Alaska to all states.
11. Prohibit funds for programs used to purchase private property or increase federal ownership of lands, unless the acquisition facilitates a land swap creating a no net gain of federal lands.
12. Identify federal lands that would be better purposed if returned to the private sector, excluding those protected by Congress, such as national parks and wildlife refuges, to help local economies expand, increase proper management of the land through private stewardship, and reduce the federal budget.
13. Exempt private lands from federal land-use regulations, such as ESA and WOTUS if there are no federal funds or programs attached to the land.
14. Require administrative agencies to release all Wilderness Study Area designations on federal lands unless the area has been specifically protected by Congress.
15. Increase timber production and livestock grazing to reduce wildfires in the U.S. National Forests by rescinding the Old Growth plan amendment and incorporating the “Fix Our Forest Act” to restore active management of forests.
16. Require all federal land management agencies to coordinate federal resource plans and polices with states and local governments as prescribed in the “Federal Land Policy and Management Act” at section 202 (43 U.S.C. § 1712(c)(9)).