Protect Bear Butte

This is a posting that Alan Aker, Chairman of Meade County Commissioners posted to his Facebook page right after the DENR decision regarding the oil drilling near Bear Butte: 

Aker said the stakes are very high for protection of private property rights. “There is no reason to believe this ruling will be limited to Bear Butte, since we’ve been told the entire region is “sacred”, and since the view shed of Bear Butte is hundreds of square miles. There is also no reason to believe this ruling will be limited to oil exploration or to private lands. If you think about it, roads, landfills, water systems, sewer systems, pipelines, wind generators, electricity transmission lines, and air force training ranges all require federal or state permits and are all at least as obtrusive a land use as drilling an oil well. When all these other land uses come before various agencies and boards for approval, tribes and environmentalists will testify that the same, or more restrictive, rules should apply, and this oil-drilling ruling will be useful to them in making those assertions in legal actions they may take. These restrictions, if allowed to stand, will give the tribes and environmentalists new and valuable tools in killing projects through delay, litigation, and increased expense. This is about much more than oil wells. This ruling has negative implications for economic development and wealth creation in the entire region. It will scare away investors and kill jobs. Those who want to see non-use of private lands need to get their wallets out and buy that land, instead of using the coercive power of government to achieve their goals. These efforts to restrict land use are nothing less than theft. I am shocked that a board in a supposedly conservative state like South Dakota would make such a ruling.”