LETTER: Reducing Washington’s presence in the Silver State

In absolute violation of the 10th Amendment, the federal government occupies about 85 percent of Nevada’s 70.8 million acres. Yet folks such as Erik Molvar advocate for an even higher level of federal law enforcement primacy over the citizens of our state (Dec. 8 Review-Journal commentary). Let’s recap how this “partnership” has worked out for Nevadans to date.

Southern Nevadans have been reduced to “tin cup” water beggars in asking for more than the measly 300,000 acre feet of Colorado River water allowed to our state. Meanwhile, the feds think it’s fine for rice farmers in Arizona and California to flood with this precious resource.

Not one electron of renewable energy from Boulder Dam bordering our state flows to Las Vegas residences. The vast majority is allocated by the feds to California and Arizona users.

Millions of acres of Nevada land was withdrawn — stolen without compensation — by the feds for nuclear testing, toxic waste storage and military training using depleted uranium munitions, making that land uninhabitable. As if that’s not enough, the feds are planning to steal millions of acres more right now, again without compensation, for military use.

The feds have turned the most useful recreational areas of Southern Nevada into for-profit centers, sending these profits out of state. Can anyone remember enjoying the use of Red Rock, Lake Mead and Valley of Fire for free? I can.

Radical environmentalists — with the complicity of federal agencies — have used plants, flowers, butterflies, toads, minnows, tortoises and even the crust on top of the ground as reasons to deny Nevadans the use of the lands within our state.

People such as Mr. Molvar would have you believe that Cliven Bundy’s few cows grazing in the desert are a bigger threat to Nevadans than the federal threat to our constitutionally protected state sovereignty — and that’s a load of bull.