Proactive Forest Management, PRO Act, & Small Business Week
Here's the latest dispatch.
Good evening!
Welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder.
Here’s what I have for you this week: Three articles and some podcasts episodes you may find interesting.
Enjoy!
Daily Caller: Proactive Forest Management Is Sustainable For The Environment
Here’s my first op-ed on behalf of Independent Women’s Forum on proactive forest management. Below is an excerpt:
The National Interagency Fire Center reports 80 fires are now raging across the country.
The Caldor Fire currently engulfing Lake Tahoe in California has tragically scorched over 140,000 acres and displaced many people from their homes.
It’s unacceptable to tolerate this scale of destruction year after year. Nevertheless, preservationist environmental policies — namely a century of fire suppression — are responsible for our fire mitigation woes.
As these fires expand and grow more intense, Congress and the White House must prioritize proactive forest management. It’s not enough to organize two working groups on the issue. For forest management to be realized, policymakers must identify the root causes of high-intensity fires instead of solely assigning blame to climate change.
A recent IOP Science study of key drivers behind fires determined that live fuel contributes the most to fires (53%) — followed by weather (23%) and climate change (14%). Even in California, top forest scientists point to massive accumulation of wood fuel, not climate change, as the underlying factor behind intense events.
VA Pilot: The PRO Act will affect Virginians’ livelihoods
Here’s my third op-ed with Young Voices on the impact the PRO Act will have on Virginia’s economy. An excerpt:
Virginia recently clinched the No. 1 spot as the best state to do business in the United States. But our economic-leader status could very well be stripped very soon if Congress has anything to do about it and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is enacted into law.
Right now, the pro-labor PRO Act is getting tossed around in Washington. It purports to be pro-worker, but it’s the exact opposite. It’s a piece of legislation that would make us all worse off.
First, the PRO Act would repeal our state’s long standing right-to-work law. Adopted in 1947, that law makes union membership a choice and not conditional on employment. Moreover, the measure enjoys broad bipartisan support and has contributed to Virginia’s prosperous, durable business climate.
States with right-to-work laws, including ours, boast “increased self-reported current life satisfaction, expected future life satisfaction, and sentiments about current and future economic activity among workers.” These sentiments were similarly observed in unionized workers, as well.
Townhall: Biden Administration Perpetuating War on Small Business
“Our Nation’s small businesses define our communities, drive innovation, and create the products and services that enrich our lives and solve global problems to build a better and more sustainable world,” President Biden declared in a September 10th proclamation highlighting American small businesses.
Does the Biden administration have small business interests in mind? Absolutely not.
The Biden administration claims 97 percent of small business owners won’t see tax hikes under the president’s “Build Back Better” agenda. The Tax Foundation, however, countered, “By focusing on the number of people, the Biden administration is misleadingly claiming their tax proposals would have a small effect. The actual statistics show more than half of pass-through business income could face tax increases.”
On National Small Business Week, beware of double speak by those perpetuating the War on Small Business.
Podcasts You May Have Missed
Catch up on the latest District of Conservation episodes below.
EP 210: Zack Vucurevich, Founder & Owner of Whetstone Habitat
EP 211: Catching Trout at Gunpowder Falls, Proactive Forest Management, Preservationists Want To Reimagine State Wildlife Agencies
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—Gabriella