Just When You Thought Congress Dysfunctional

October 31, 2025

Last week, the Senate passed three Congressional Review Act resolutions overturning BLM resource management plans. What would have been called an earth-shattering precedent not so long ago was this time hardly noticed except by those who closely follow Interior and energy issues. The Biden-era resource management plans were designed to lock up millions of acres […]

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International Trade, Free Markets, and Killer Whales

October 22, 2025

When Congress authorized nearly $400 billion in climate subsidies, the bill was called the “Inflation Reduction Act,” though it had nothing to do with inflation. The 2001 “Patriot Act” was about expanding government surveillance powers, not patriotism. The massive new federal health insurance program was called “Affordable Care Act,” though it did not reduce the […]

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West Slope’s Conscience v. Denver’s Memory

October 8, 2025

Washington Evening Star humorist Philander Chase Johnson created a great character named Senator Sorghum. A 1902 piece called “A Delicate Distinction” had one character saying, “That friend of yours seems to have a clear conscience.” Senator Sorghum answered, “No, not a clear conscience; merely a bad memory.” A convenient memory is common in politics. And current […]

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Feds Need Different Approach to Colorado River

October 1, 2025

This month’s withdrawal of President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) provides an opportunity, not just for a new nominee but for a new approach to the whole Colorado River management mess. It is an opportunity the White House and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum should take very seriously. The nominee’s withdrawal, due […]

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Do Your Rights End at My Property?

September 24, 2025

John B. Finch, a 19th Century prohibition activist, originated the expression, “your right to swing your arm ends just where my nose begins.” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes often used similar analogies to argue that personal freedoms do not extend to injuring the safety or property of others. Yet he also upheld limitations on property rights […]

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Beneficial Use is Well Defined, Well Understood

September 16, 2025

Last week when some marauding teens bashed a mailbox with a bat, angry neighbors posted on nextdoor.com, “there needs to be a law against that.” Is that just an impulse reaction, or do they really not know there is a law against that. Since 1909, it has been a federal offense to tamper with, vandalize, […]

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Someone Has to Pull the Lever

September 12, 2025

All my adult life, presidents have talked about energy independence. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bush’s vowed to end dependence on foreign oil, to no avail. Even Obama and Biden, who did everything they could to stop domestic energy production, at least mouthed the same words. But on both sides, changing policies is […]

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These Public Lands Are Different

September 10, 2025

A land ownership checkerboard exists in nearly every state because of an oddity called “state school trust lands.” The federal government granted those lands at the time of statehood, under the Land Ordinance of 1785. Thomas Jefferson’s system divides and records land into townships, each with 36 one-square-mile sections. New states entering the union were […]

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If States Don’t Want Park Sites, Who Does?

August 27, 2025

Referring to the President’s annual budget proposal to Congress, a Bloomberg headline read: “Trump Plans to Offload National Park Sites, But States Don’t Want Them.” Really? I couldn’t help wondering why we have national parks that states don’t want. Without state support, how did they get established in the first place? Funny how many federal officials […]

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Their Jobs Essential. Yours, Not So Much

August 13, 2025

Every time congressional dysfunction has caused a temporary government shutdown, I’ve heard people make fun of the instruction that “essential workers” must report to work anyway. Pundits always ask, if other government workers are not essential, why do we pay them? What business hires workers it doesn’t need? Nearly all employees think they are essential, […]

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