Senate OKs bill to block DPL from leasing lands for CJMT
The Senate has approved a bill to prohibit the Department of Public Lands from leasing any lands of the Commonwealth for any military live-fire or bombing activity, as well as mandate that any proposed public land lease for military activity be ratified by the people of the Commonwealth at a general or special election.
“With the scarce amount of land mass in the CNMI, it is imperative that our government preserves the remaining islands in the CNMI for future generations. The U.S. has ruined the island of [Farallon de Medinilla] with its live bombs, live fire, and military training. The CNMI has lost any and all political, cultural, and economic value and use of FDM. It is for this reason that the Commonwealth cannot risk losing another one of its pristine islands at the hands of the U.S. military,” the bill states.
The bill states that DPL shall not lease any public land within the CNMI for any military live-fire or bombing activity. It mandates that the department will not lease any public land for any other activity until the proposed lease agreement is ratified by vote and “approved by two-thirds of the votes cast to approve the lease agreement.”
The bill cites the “CNMI Joint Military Training” project, which proposes to lease the entire island of Pagan for military training. The Senate believes it would be a travesty for the CNMI to allow the U.S. military to “unilaterally occupy and destroy” the island’s natural environment, as there is an expressed interest in its resettlement.
Excellent. Make it harder in every way possible for the Navy to take, damage or destory our islands. The DoD has an insatiable appetite for new places to train and destroy. They’ve already got 30 Million acres for training and testing activities and just took nearly 1 Million square MILES of the ocean around the CNMI and as far south as Palau for training and weapons testing. They are out of control.
Eminent Domain is not a license for the DoD to take what they want. You’ll probably never hear the Navy or the DoD threaten to use Eminent Domain because they know their chances of success are very, very low. They’d have to convince the US Congress to approve it and pay for it and they know that ain’t gonna happen – as long as the CNMI government and the people strongly object. We just need to keep saying NO to the Navy and DoD as often as they pretend not to hear.