OPEN RANGE- El Paso Payoff Hurts Cattle Producers
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Money talks, no I take that back, when it comes to a couple of western environmental groups it shouts! Stay tuned I’ll tell you why the ranching community is outraged over what has been called the El Paso Payoff. Two environmental groups, the Western Watershed Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Association with the stated goal of getting ranchers off the land took a twenty million dollar payoff to stop protesting an oil and gas pipeline propsed by the El Paso Corporation. The Western Watershed Project had been on a legal crusade against the pipeline but they changed their tune for a lofty sum and promised to”pipe down” over the gas line that will cut through Wyoming and Oregon’s rangeland. Oh these are the same groups that file lawsuit after lawsuit to force ranchers off the land who by the way have been running cattle on this range for generations without problems. Yet even after the recent gulf oil crisis, it appears cattle pose more of a threat to these environmentalists than mega oil and gas conglomerates. The El Paso Corporation is feeling heat from the ag community so keep the letter and emails coming. It's working. Senator Dean Rhoads who chairs the Nevada Legislative Committee on Public Lands recently stated "The livestock industry is about as upset about this issue as it has been for a long time. We're going to fight it tooth and nail," While Western Watersheds and the Oregon Natural Desert Association withdrew their requests for a rehearing to stop the pipleine the Sierra Club also radically opposed (and contacted by El Paso )hasn’t sold out, yet. How do these enviro-hypocrites sleep at night, have they no conscience?. .
