Landowners to be evicted to make way for Chinese Investment project. No, this not a story from Sri Lanka. This is from the "land of the free".
In this case it is Senator Harry Reid's (the Senate Majority Leader) son who has been negotiating with Chinese Investors to locate a Solar Energy project on ranch land. Federal Agents stormed Cliven Bundy's land, began rounding up his cattle, arrested one of his sons and Tasered another, and allegedly shoved his sister—a cancer survivor—to the ground.
As news of the “Old West-style showdown” spread last week, armed militia members
and self-proclaimed patriot types began streaming onto the ranch,
escalating tensions and stoking fears that the situation might unspool
into another Waco or Ruby Ridge.
On Saturday, federal forces retreated and claimed it was for the sake of public safety, although they vowed to pursue
their case against Bundy.
It was suggested that their retreat may have
been linked to embarrassing revelations that Nevada Senator Harry Reid
and his son had been negotiating with Chinese investors to use that part of the desert for a solar-energy project
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/31/us-usa-china-reid-solar-idUSBRE87U06D20120831
http://takimag.com/article/the_vanishing_yokel_jim_goad
A detail that may not have made it onto the radar was that the Federal agents were not moving onto Bundy’s own ranch land, but rather onto federally-owned land (administered by the BLM) that Bundy had been using for grazing his cattle without paying the required grazing fees (ie, land lease) for a number of years - he was over $1.1M in arrears.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Bundy’s ranch is about 175 miles from the solar site in Laughlin, which is being developed on land purchased from Clark County, not Federal property. The lowball price negotiated between the solar developer and the County reflected job, wage, and other concessions made by the company to get the deal - this is similar to the tax breaks that are typically offered by government entities to lure private development to their area.
Thanks Steve. That does make the story not that much of a story.
ReplyDelete