We just launched our new CRS Action Center to help ensure that our member’s voices are heard from Capitol Hill to the White House and beyond. This new tool makes it quick and easy to weigh in on key issues with your elected officials or comment on agency actions. You can even send a tweet to President Trump.

Messages sent via the Action Center integrate with the official web form of the recipient, ensuring it is properly considered as official constituent correspondence.  We will always feature 3 to 7 alerts on the Action Center page. We hope you will weigh in on these issues, but you can also use that gateway for other issues that concern you.

The page currently features alerts on misguided efforts to give away our public lands, roll back auto fuel-efficiency standards, undo waste prevention measures, and weaken the Clean Water Act. We also have one to encourage Republican members of the House of Representatives to join 17 of their colleagues in signing onto a landmark GOP climate resolution.

Please check it out. You will be glad you did. Here is the link: CRS Action Center

For anyone who cares about safeguarding our environment, many of President Trump’s past statements have been worrisome, as have the people he put in charge of transitioning to a new administration. This makes it particularly important to have thoughtful, stewardship-minded leaders heading up the Department of Interior and EPA.

Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Interior, Congressman Ryan Zinke, is worthy of support. He is an advocate for America’s public lands who opposes efforts to turn those lands over to states and special interests. He boycotted the GOP convention because the platform was anti-public land. Zinke clearly meets the threshold of someone who cares about safeguarding our natural heritage.

The same is not the case with Trump’s nominee for EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt. As Attorney General of Oklahoma Pruitt amassed a long record of opposing EPA and the environmental laws the agency is responsible for enforcing, including suing the agency 13 times.

Moreover, Pruitt always seems to come down on the side of the polluter rather than the environment and the broader public interest. This tendency tracks closely with his ties to regulated industries, including donations to his campaigns and other endeavors. Putting Pruitt in charge of EPA would be akin to putting a fox in charge of a henhouse.

For those reasons, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship supports the Ryan Zinke for Secretary of Interior and strongly opposes the nomination of Scott Pruitt to head EPA. The Pruitt nomination falls short of the standard set by past Republican presidents to nominate EPA heads who believe in the agency’s mission and are committed to its important work.

On June 15th, CRS president David Jenkins testified before the House Natural Resources and Homeland Security committees at a forum about Countering Extremism on America’s Public Lands. Ranking Members Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) held the forum after their requests for full committee hearings on the topic were rejected by Committee Chairs Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Michael McCaul (R-TX).

Jenkins expressed disappointment that this subject has not gotten a full committee hearing. “In light of the Malheur Refuge takeover, increasing threats against land managers, and the rise of militant groups like Oath Keepers, this is clearly an issue that deserves bi-partisan attention.”

He told the lawmakers that the Obama Administration was too timid in dealing with the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff and called Congressman Rob Bishop’s (R-UT) inflammatory rhetoric “inexcusable.”

The forum can be viewed on the embedded video included in this post. CRS comments begin at the 30:08 mark. The written comments submitted by CRS are included as well.

Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship (CRS) is running print ads in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News urging Utah Congressman Rob Bishop, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, to denounce Bundy-style thuggery and lawlessness on our nation’s public lands, which even after numerous arrests, still threatens public safety and the visitor experience.

In the face of an alarming escalation of violence and intimidation by armed anti-public land militants, which culminated earlier this year in the take over of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Chairman Bishop has refused to denounce such extremism. Instead, he too often seems to be egging it on.

Not only did he refuse to cosponsor a resolution condemning the refuge takeover, he regularly hurls insults at land managers, and he recently co-sponsored a bill to strip federal agencies of their law enforcement authority. When asked if he would hold hearings about the Malheur incident and other extremist acts, the Chairman doubled down, saying that instead he wants to continue oversight of “what we feel is the abuse of individuals by the federal land management agencies…”

Bishop appears intent on inflaming sentiment against public lands and those who manage them to advance his land transfer goals. This would be irresponsible under any circumstance, but in light of recent threats against land managers and various incidents of armed aggression by the Bundys and others, it is reckless and dangerous.

As chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Congressman Bishop has a duty to promote public safety and the rule of law. It is time for him to finally recognize that, and clearly denounce the actions of the Bundys and other militants.

The ads, which show Calf Creek Falls in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, appear in the April 19th editions of the two newspapers.

The arrest of the key members of the Bundy clan and recent action to bring an end to the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were long overdue and CRS applauds the efforts of the FBI and other law enforcement personnel.

In June of last year CRS called on the Obama Administration to bring scofflaw rancher Cliven Bundy to justice, along with the militants he rallied to an armed standoff with law enforcement in Nevada back in 2014. Our concern was that failing to promptly do so only further emboldens these radicals to greater extremes and more lawlessness.

That concern proved prescient on January 2nd when Ammon and Ryan Bundy, along with a handful of fellow militants, forcibly occupied the Malheur Refuge.

In the CRS press statement on the occupation being brought to an end, CRS president David Jenkins said:

“We commend the FBI and other law enforcement officers for ending the armed seizure of this beloved refuge and arresting those involved. The use of armed force and intimidation to get one’s way in a democracy is the worst kind of bullying. It undermines freedom and tramples on the rights of every other American.”

On Cliven Bundy, Jenkins noted:

“Cliven Bundy is not a sympathetic figure to real conservatives who respect the rule of law. He is a radical, anti-American bully who has cheated taxpayers, intimidated public officials, and broken the law with impunity for more than two decades. Any effort to defend his behavior or portray him as some kind of victim is a fool’s errand.

In June CRS called on the Obama Administration to bring scofflaw rancher Cliven Bundy to justice, along with the militants he rallied to an armed standoff with law enforcement in Nevada back in 2014. Our concern was, and is, that failing to promptly do so only further emboldens these radicals to greater extremes and more lawlessness.

The armed takeover and ongoing occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in southeastern Oregon further validates that concern.

“People need to understand that the Bundy strain of radicalism is anti-American and dangerous,” said CRS president David Jenkins. “The Bundys—and the armed militants who back them up—are attacking our nation, its laws, its values, its history, and the democratic processes established by our forefathers. They are also trampling on the rights of every American. They are the opposite of conservative, and they will continue to bully, threaten, and test the limits of civil society until they are stopped.”

A powerful congressman–along with the special interests that support him–is seeking to dismantle the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), one of America’s most successful and popular land conservation programs.

Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, is blocking bipartisan efforts to reauthorize the 50-year-old program and seeking to replace LWCF with a scheme that completely betrays the program’s conservation purposes.

If you are a conservative who values our parks, forests and outdoor recreation opportunities, please go to our take action page and let your representatives in Congress know you oppose this radical legislation.

The Obama Administration’s decision to not list the greater sage-grouse as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a prudent one. It not only reflects the most recent sage grouse population trends, but also encourages ongoing cooperative conservation efforts that are showing clear signs of success.

CRS president David Jenkins said, “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision not to list the greater sage-grouse is a credit to cooperative conservation efforts of the Bush and Obama Administrations, state wildlife agencies and everyone who has answered the call to conserve sage-grouse habitat.” He added, “This decision is a clear measure of success for a truly conservative approach to conservation, but success will be fleeting without continued diligence and an enduring commitment to effective stewardship.”

Securing a long-term and sustainable sage-grouse recovery will require that federal and state land use plans be firm in their protection of sage-grouse habitat, and that appeals to water down these plans by short-sighted special interests be rejected.

CRS also encourages future administrations to recognize the importance of utilizing the ESA sooner rather than later should the sage-grouse population resume its decline trend.

The climate resolution introduced today by Congressman Chris Gibson (R-NY) and ten Republican cosponsors presents a tremendous opportunity for all House Republicans to demonstrate their support for prudent, fact-based stewardship of, as President Reagan put it, “this magical planet that God gave us.”

CRS president David Jenkins said:

“By introducing this common sense resolution, Congressman Gibson and his fellow Republican cosponsors have demonstrated the prudence, responsibility and vision that are hallmarks of true conservatism. Just as President Reagan did when addressing ozone depletion, they have risen above politics to acknowledge a serious threat to our planet—and by doing so, they have increased the likelihood that conservative ideas will finally be brought to bear on a problem that has for far too long been ceded to liberals.”

Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship (CRS) has been working to educate the public–especially fellow conservatives–about the EPA’s new Clean Water Rule. In this post we provide links to our recent op-ed in the Knoxville News-Sentinel pointing out how the proposed Rule follows the intent and vision of Senator Howard Baker, a Republican author of the Clean Water Act. CRS has also been carrying our message to the airwaves with interviews on drive-time radio in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Three clips from CRS President David Jenkins’ recent interview on WECO in Wartburg, Tennessee are also included in this post.

Baker and the other authors of the CWA fully understood that because smaller water features flow into bigger ones, the law must cover the entire watershed to be effective. This sound thinking is not only critical to protect the biological integrity of our water resources, but it also protects taxpayer wallets and property rights. The new Clean Water Rule does the same. For a good background on this issue, check out the full post.

Pope Francis’ recently released Encyclical on the environment (Ladauto Si’) drew dismissive comments from two Catholic GOP presidential candidates, Rick Santorum and Jeb Bush. Their comments are striking in just how selective and limiting they portray the role of faith, and suggest that both men regard stewardship of the environment as being completely outside the realm of faith and morality. Such an attitude is impious.

One does not have to agree with every word in Laudato Si’ in order to take the stewardship message seriously and be, as President Reagan once said, “worried about what man has done and is doing to this magical planet that God gave us.”

Clean water is a priority for every American, and the new EPA rule merits the same bi-partisan support that the Act itself received. This rule also deserves support—especially from conservatives—because it better protects wetlands, which is fiscally responsible and protective of downstream property rights,”

When looking for environmental success stories coming out of the Lone Star State, a couple really stand out. One is the amazing growth of wind energy. Texas is the king of wind energy, producing about 20 percent of the wind power generated in the United States. The...

Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who orchestrated an armed standoff with federal officials last year over his refusal to pay two decades worth of grazing fees and fines, is back in the news. Late last month, he and his followers rallied in Carson City to support...

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