Nothing Is Safe From the Environmental Zealots
Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel
Colorado Springs, CO
Originally sent to subscribers 01/01/24
One of the bedrock principles upon which the free market is built, indeed our entire country’s structure, is the right for individuals to hold private property.
Naturally then, those who want to force a socialist/Marxist/communist economic and cultural system on America have to gradually eliminate that piece of bedrock.
We were in Nebraska in the ‘70s when the concept of “land use planning” first reared its head. It was not so much the idea of planning ahead for wise use of land that riled cattlemen -- it was who was going to do the deciding, planning, execution and enforcement.
Of course, since that time, big government believers, local busybodies, politicians and bureaucrats at every level and grasping politicians and technocrats on the global level have been busy. With varying degrees of bold moves and sly under-the-radar moves, the movement to curtail private property rights, including the possession, control or enjoyment of land has accelerated.
As if arrogant politicians and unaccountable government bureaucrats weren’t enough to deal with, the environmental zealots have come up with a new wrinkle. And one of the players leading the charge, is the high priest of the global green movement, Larry Fink of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world. Navigator CO2 Ventures, 84 percent owned by BlackRock, according to American Stewards of Liberty, and Summit Carbon Solutions are two private companies that have “declared” themselves “common carriers.” Traditionally a designation of railroads, water companies and pipelines, this designation allows private companies to take privately owned land by eminent domain, (“Seizing Private Land for Climate Change,” The Epoch Times, 12/20-26/23).
Net zero imperative emergency, don’t you know.
Plans call for Navigator’s “Heartland Greenway” to carry CO2 emissions from ethanol plants to locations where it could be pumped deeply underground. Summit would connect to over 30 ethanol plants in Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Minnesota.
Legal Definition of Common carrier. A “common carrier” is a carrier owning or operating a railroad, steamship, or other transportation line or route which undertakes to transport goods or merchandise for all of the general public who choose to employ him, (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School).
While Navigator has paused their project in the face of local resistance, South Dakota state Rep. Karla Lems said over 150 South Dakota landowners have been served papers by Summit, condemning portions of their land and allowing Summit access, The Epoch Times story said.
“My biggest concern is that we are setting a precedent,” Lems said. “This is eminent domain for private gain. If the pipeline succeeds, “solar and wind are right behind them.”
These moves are the embodiment of the attitude of the green zealots that the end justifies the means in the name of the “climate emergency.”
To achieve “net zero” by 2050, many more huge swaths of land will be required for solar and wind arrays. But 70 percent of the land mass in the U.S. is privately owned and many owners have been opposed to allowing green projects on their land. Some 600 communities have blocked renewable energy projects, according to the Renewable Rejection Database, the Times said.
So at least one state’s Democrat-controlled legislature, Michigan, has already passed a law taking control of land use for renewable projects away from local communities and giving it to the Michigan Public Service Commission.
And Larry Fink has an ally.
Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, in a letter to shareholders, has advised that governments, corporations and NGOs must mount a huge global investment for clean energy.
“We may even need to [invoke] eminent domain.”
Naturally, federal government powers and leftist states think that’s a great new concept -- and a license to steal.
Given the broad definition of “common carrier” above, it may take state or federal legislation to stop private companies from declaring themselves common carriers and possessors of eminent domain.
Instead, at least one state is doing just the opposite.
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