[CPEO-MEF] EXPANSION, ENERGY: White Sands Missile Range's Northern Extension Area

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

WSMR, DOD may take control of range's Northern Extension Area
Ranchers, commissioner worry about shift to DOD

By Jason Gibbs
Las Cruces Sun-News (NM)
July 19, 2014

LAS CRUCES - On a wide swath of too-often dry and usually wind-swept  
land along the northern reaches of White Sands Missile Range,  
ranchers and the military have long ridden herd on a cooperative, if  
occasionally grudging, relationship.

Now, the recent approval of the SunZia transmission line through the  
missile range - a compromise between the Department of Defense and  
the Bureau of Land Management in May - has again stirred concerns  
about access to federal lands and government transparency.

Tucked away in the national defense authorization act is a line that  
provides for "further withdrawal of federal land and transfer to  
White Sands Missile Range." That line, if given congressional  
approval and a presidential signature, would essentially shift  
control of 328,729 acres of BLM land to the DOD. It would only affect  
future utility construction across the military testing and training  
grounds and would have no impact on hunting or grazing leases that  
are in place, nor affect the planned SunZia transmission line, said  
U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_26180573/wsmr-dod-may- 
take-control-ranges-northern-extension

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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