The Nevada rancher who forced the federal Bureau of Land Management to back down last week may have been targeted because a Chinese solar company with ties to Sen. Harry Reid's son wants the land for an energy plant, several websites report.
A report on Godfatherpolitics.com, says Chinese energy giant ENN Energy Group wants to use federal land as part of its effort to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel-building plant in the southern Nevada desert. Rory Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is representing ENN in their efforts to locate in Nevada.
Part of the land ENN wants to use was purchased from Clark County at well below appraised value. Rory Reid is the former Clark County Commission chairman, and he persuaded the commission to sell 9,000 acres of county land to ENN on the promise it would provide jobs for the area, Reutersreported in 2012.
In addition to the county acreage, the federal Bureau of Land Management at one time was looking at BLM property under dispute with cattle rancher Cliven Bundy. The BLM is headed by former Harry Reid senior policy adviser Neil Kornz.
According to BizPac Review, BLMdocuments indicate that the federal property for which Bundy claims grazing rights were under consideration by a solar energy company. Those documents have since been removed from BLM's website, but BizPac quotes from one of them:
"Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle."
"Trespass cattle" is a reference to Bundy's herd. Bundy's family has grazed cattle on the land since the 1870s, and Bundy maintains he has grazing rights to the federal land. But he hasn't paid his federal grazing fees in 20 years in a dispute with the BLM.
UPDATE:
From Cliven Bundy's daughter Shiree...
By SHIREE BUNDY COX: I have had people
ask me to explain my dad's stance on this BLM fight. Here it is in as simple of
terms as I can explain it. There is so much to it, but here it s in a nut
shell. My great grandpa bought the rights to the Bunkerville allotment back in
1887 around there.
Then he sold them to my grandpa who then turned them over to
my dad in 1972. These men bought and paid for their rights to the range and
also built waters, fences and roads to assure the servival of their cattle, all
with their own money, not with tax dollars. These rights to the land use is
called preemptive rights. Some where down the line, to keep the cows from over
grazing, came the bureau of land management. They were supposed to assist the
ranchers in the management of their ranges while the ranchers paid a yearly
allotment which was to be use to pay the BLM wages and to help with repairs and
improvements of the ranches. My dad did pay his grazing fees for years to the
BLM until they were no longer using his fees to help him and to improve.
Instead they began using these money's against the ranchers. They bought all
the rest of the ranchers in the area out with they're own grazing fees.
When
they offered to buy my dad out for a pentence he said no thanks and then fired
them because they weren't doing their job. He quit paying the BLM but, tried
giving his grazing fees to the county, which they turned down. So my dad just
went on running his ranch and making his own improvements with his own
equipment and his own money, not taxes. In essence the BLM was managing my dad
out of business. Well when buying him out didn't work, they used the indangered
species card. You've already heard about the desert tortis. Well that didn't
work either, so then began the threats and the court orders, which my dad has
proven to be unlawful for all these years. Now their desperate. It's come down
to buying the brand inspector off and threatening the County Sheriff.
Everything their doing at this point is illegal and totally against the
constitution of the United States of America. Now you may be saying," how
sad, but what does this have to do with me?" Well, I'll tell you. They
will get rid of Cliven Bundy, the last man standing on the Bunkerville
allotment and then they will close all the roads so no one can ever go on it
again. Next, it's Utah's turn. Mark my words, Utah is next.
Then there's the issue of the cattle that are at this moment
being stolen. See even if dad hasn't paid them, those cattle do belong to him.
Regardless where they are they are my fathers property. His herd has been part
of that range for over a hundred years, long before the BLM even exsisted. Now
the Feds think they can just come in and remove them and sell them without a
legal brand inspection or without my dad's signature on it. They think they can
take them over two boarders, which is illegal, ask any trucker. Then they plan
to take them to the Richfield Auction and sell them. All with our tax money.
They have paid off the contract cowboys and the auction owner as well as the
Nevada brand inspector with our tax dollars. See how slick they are
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