While Americans are focused on the implementation of ObamaCare and the battle of the budget, the House is preparing to vote on an amendment offered by Rep. Ben Lujan (D-NM) that is a dry-run to kill the Keystone Pipeline and other economic development projects across the nation.
The House is scheduled to consider a non-controversial land-swap deal in Arizona. Liberal Rep. Ben Lujan (D-NM) is preparing an amendment that would give the Secretary of the Department of Interior the power to designate the site a Native American "cultural site" killing the project in its tracks. The amendment is a dream for radical environmentalists who could use the amendment as a precedent to kill other developmental projects like Keystone Pipeline.
Supporters of the Lujan Amendment define "cultural sites" as anywhere where our original inhabitants' lived, prayed and worshiped would be barred from new development.
Some Republicans are supporting the amendment perhaps not recognizing its a camel's nose under the net. If this precedent is applied in the future it would have a destructive impact it would have on road construction, home building, land swaps, or even the development of the Keystone Pipeline.
The amendment would give environmentalists another tool in their arsenal to stop development of any project they do not support. Worse yet, there is little doubt, courthouses across the nation would be flooded with lawsuits from the radical environmentalists demanding "cultural site" designations anywhere and everywhere construction is proposed.
Contractors, road builders, pipelayers, and construction unions should be up in arms over the amendment but no one seems to realize its potential impact. One government official should not have the power to stop economic development across the nation. But if the Lujan amendment does become law, the Secretary of Interior would have that power. Overnight he would become one of the most powerful government officials in the nation. The Lujan amendment must be defeated.
