Romney Doesn't Seem to Know What He's Talking About...

At least when it comes to the state of Nevada.  When interviewed by the editorial staff of the Reno-Gazette Journal, he was asked  about whether he would sell public lands back to the state and this is what he said:

"I don’t know the reason that the federal government owns such a large share of Nevada.  And when I was in Utah at the Olympics there I heard a similar refrain there.  What they were concerned about was that the government would step in and say, “We’re taking this” — which by the way has extraordinary coal reserves — “and we’re not going to let you develop these coal reserves.”  I mean, it drove the people nuts.  Unless there’s a valid, and legitimate, and compelling governmental purpose, I don’t know why the government owns so much of this land. 

So I haven’t studied it, what the purpose is of the land, so I don’t want to say, “Oh, I’m about to hand it over.” But where government ownership of land is designed to satisfy, let’s say, the most extreme environmentalists, from keeping a population from developing their coal, their gold, their other resources for the benefit of the state, I would find that to be unacceptable."

Apparently, some one needs to do their homework.  Or perhaps someone just needs to tell him that these public lands boost our economy and provide an enormous amount of jobs.  In 2010, federally managed public lands in Nevada provided over $1 billion dollars...that may not sound like a lot of money to him but it does to me.  Also, many recreational activities take place on these lands, such as skiing, boating, and hiking.  He seems to not understand why the government is denying coal (he's interested in mining it), gold, and other resources to the citizens, especially since it's mostly inhabitable deserts and mountains.  I'm not one to really follow politics, but I stumbled across this article and thought I'd share. 





http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/03/418141/romney-public-lands/?mobile=nc