I don't have a link hand, so take this for what it's worth...
I heard that this was mostly to declare a bunch more land off limits to oil/resource exploration and use...
Again, it's hear-say, so I'll have to look a bit to find where I read it.
It was one of those omnibus bills so I don't doubt some of the land now off limits includes oil rich land and old growth forests.
We've destroyed enough old growth and have plenty of land that has been logged that we can now log again. We do not need to log every old growth forest.
The oil rich land is another story. With an omnibus bill you have to take the good with the bad.
Republicans if they had any stones or principles would campaign on getting rid of omnibus bills and support every individual matter getting an up or down vote.
