CV NEWS FEED // Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), once wrote that Americans “breed” too much, called American children “environmental hazards,” and stated that U.S. citizens should stop “at one or two kids” for the sake of the environment.
Stone-Manning made these statements and others like them in her graduate thesis in 1992, reported The Daily Caller.
In the thesis, Stone-Manning presented a photograph of a baby along with the question: “Can you find the environmental hazard in this photo?”
“That’s right, it’s the cute baby,” wrote Stone-Manning, adding that each new American child will “gobble up” more of the earth’s resources than children from other industrialized nations.
“The origin of our abuses is us. If there were fewer of us, we would have less impact,” Stone-Manning wrote elsewhere in her thesis, according to The Daily Caller. “We must consume less, and more importantly, we must breed fewer consuming humans.”
Stone-Manning is also facing mounting criticism over her connection to a federal investigation into an act of ecoterrorism in the 1980’s.
Specifically, the case involved a crime known as “tree-spiking,” in which ecoterrorists insert nails in trees which are slated for felling. The presence of the “spikes” can lead to serious injuries to workers in the logging industry.
The controversy around Stone-Manning’s nomination is not only a matter of her alleged involvement in the crime, but rather in her (allegedly false) assurances to Congress that she was never investigated.
As The Daily Caller reported:
Protect the Public’s Trust, a government watchdog group, filed a complaint on Tuesday with the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia demanding an investigation into whether Stone-Manning violated federal law by providing false testimony to Congress. “In answering the committee’s official questionnaire, Ms. Stone-Manning appears to have knowingly and willfully concealed or covered up a material fact in order to deceive the U.S. Senate and the American public about the true nature of her involvement in an eco-terrorism case,” the watchdog group wrote in a statement. “She was granted immunity for her testimony in the case that resulted in at least one individual serving prison time. The facts, including as revealed by a U.S. Attorney and Ms. Stone-Manning’s previous assertions, warrant a full investigation.”
Despite the concerns of congressional Republicans, the Biden administration has remained supportive of its nominee.
“Tracy Stone-Manning is a dedicated public servant who has years of experience and a proven track record of finding solutions and common ground when it comes to our public lands and waters,” the White House told the Washington Examiner this week. “She is exceptionally qualified to be the next director of the Bureau of Land Management.”