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Cost to Enter National Parks Will More Than Double, As Land Around Them Gets Leased for Oil and Gas
The current Republican president and his Secretary of the Interior have a different view of things. They are cutting the budget of the National Park Service and significantly increasing the fees to get in.
"The infrastructure of our national parks is aging and in need of renovation and restoration," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. "Targeted fee increases at some of our most-visited parks will help ensure that they are protected and preserved in perpetuity and that visitors enjoy a world-class experience that mirrors the amazing destinations they are visiting."
But then according to AP,
"While the national parks counted 292 million visitors in 2014, those visitors tend to be older and whiter than the U.S. population overall." Sounds like people who voted for the president, and if you are over 62 it's free (albeit with a lifetime pass that just increased in price) so the boomer base is protected.But wait, there's more; in accordance with the President's executive order "promoting energy independence and economic growth, "they have started leasing land around National Parks (they are not allowed to in the parks) to today's Robber Barons for oil and gas development.
Oh well. National Monuments are better anyway.
U.S. National Park Service Seeks Comments on Proposed Fee Increases
The National Park Service issued a press release about its proposal to raise fees at its most popular parks:
News Release Date: October 24, 2017
Contact:NPS Office of Communications, 202-208-6843
Public invited to provide comments on proposed peak season fee increases at 17 highly visited parks
[...] The proposed new fee structure would be implemented at Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Denali, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Olympic, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion National Parks with peak season starting on May 1, 2018; in Acadia, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, and Shenandoah National Parks with peak season starting on June 1, 2018; and in Joshua Tree National Park as soon as practicable in 2018.
A public comment period on the peak-season entrance fee proposal will be open from October 24, 2017 to November 23, 2017, on the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website https://parkplanning.nps.gov/proposedpeakseasonfeerates. Written comments can be sent to 1849 C Street, NW, Mail Stop: 2346 Washington, DC 20240.
If implemented, estimates suggest that the peak-season price structure could increase national park revenue by $70 million per year. That is a 34 percent increase over the $200 million collected in Fiscal Year 2016. Under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, 80% of an entrance fee remains in the park where it is collected. The other 20% is spent on projects in other national parks.
During the peak season at each park, the entrance fee would be $70 per private, non-commercial vehicle, $50 per motorcycle, and $30 per person on bike or foot. A park-specific annual pass for any of the 17 parks would be available for $75.
The New York Post called some of the proposed increases "steep":
The National Park Service is considering a steep increase in entrance fees at 17 of its most popular parks, mostly in the West, to address a backlog of maintenance and infrastructure projects.
Visitors to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion and other national parks would be charged $70 per vehicle, up from the fee of $30 for a weekly pass. At others, the hike is nearly triple, from $25 to $70.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @02:01PM (4 children)
What the fuck does that even mean? How are you whiter than a general population? Did you not tan at all over the last 10 years, making you whiter than a person who tanned last summer?
Oh wait I get it, this is the usual tactic by the left to drum up some sort of a non-existent controversy using racial undertones. Oh no, only White people can afford a $200K RV-Bus, so CAMPING is WACIST! Seriously, these people have only one lens with whitch to view the world, and I would be sad for them if it wasn't so fucking offensive to me. Despicable nonsense, that should be called out, and shamed every time it is encountered.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @04:29PM (1 child)
yes, it's a way to make something automatically evil. these propagandists have to be dealt with. so far they have operated in safety. that free reign needs to end.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @05:17PM
Lololol
You wacko, it isn't about making anything evil, it IS about the irony of Trump's supporters (old and white generally) being the ones this will impact most.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)
Yes, there's many reasons, some not pleasant, that European ancestry is correlated with wealth and that African ancestry is inversely correlated with the same. However, race is not the reason we can do anything about at this scale (the scale of statistical sampling). Wealth disparity is something we can choose to do something about. Or at least addressing wealth disparity is a problem that we can solve with orders of magnitude more ease. And, in fact, solving wealth disparity will even work towards solving the more scurrilous racial baggage in the USA.
So we can make it an issue about race, which will just piss everybody off. People of African ancestry have many legitimate grievances. People of European ancestry, however, are just barely making ends meet themselves. Whites need to learn that even though their skin may be the same color as many MotUs, they should treat the MotUs as though their skin were green and scaly like the lizards they are.
The reason white people bristle at the idea that they're somehow responsible for the travails of the average black person is that they are not doing so well themselves! When can we admit that white working class people are a fundamentally different demographic than the MotU and that black working class people are a fundamentally similar demographic to white working class people?
I get closer to needing to turn in my Libertarian Party membership card. Getting more liberal the older I get it seems. It's completely obvious that the MotU are using race as a wedge issue to divide the working class against itself. With the working class divided against itself, blacks blaming whites and whites blaming blacks, they cannot effectively engage in collective bargaining. Both blacks and whites are being played by the sociopathic MotU, just because they don't want all of us to get together and decide that we need higher wages, more vacation time, and we need taxes on the very wealthy to be a lot higher than they currently are.
We should strive for a country where it doesn't matter where one's ancestors were living 500 years ago. Everybody should be able to go camping several times per year. We want to lift everybody, regardless of the color of their skin, up to this level. Instead, the MotU are dividing everybody to sink us back down to the level of medieval serfs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @05:20PM
Why do you think it is OK to stick your fingers into other people's pockets? Taking MY money to pay for THEIR lack of planning and responsibility! You're just jealous.
Well, that is what I imagine TMB would reply with.