Congress has allowed one of our most fundamental, bedrock conservation programs to lapse. This is terrible news. As of today, the Land and Water Conservation Fund is no longer setting aside, each day, $2.46 million in royalties from offshore drilling for the purpose of reinvesting those dollars in our parks, playgrounds and open spaces.
Congress failed to renew this program before its September 30 deadline only because a handful of extreme anti-conservationists derailed the reauthorization.
This time-honored, 50-year old program takes a small portion of the oil and gas royalties from drilling in publicly owned offshore waters and invests it in parks in virtually every county in the U.S. A backlog of important projects awaits LWCF dollars right now. Postponing or killing this program means that these wild areas and others will be sold and developed—and more of our nation’s open spaces will end up closed to the public.
America’s hardest working conservation program must not fall victim to a few extremists in Congress.
This time-honored, 50-year old program takes a small portion of the oil and gas royalties from drilling in publicly owned offshore waters and invests it in parks in virtually every county in the U.S. A backlog of important projects awaits LWCF dollars right now. Postponing or killing this program means that these wild areas and others will be sold and developed—and more of our nation’s open spaces will end up closed to the public.
America’s hardest working conservation program must not fall victim to a few extremists in Congress.
Photo: Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (Oregon). Credit: BLM, flickr.
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