For Immediate Release: January 18, 2024

Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard

Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com

 

Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that discusses the SEC’s proposed rule change to create Natural Asset Companies. It is in three formats: written, audio and video. Anyone is welcome to use it for broadcasting or reporting.

Sounding Property Rights Alarm

Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA

Some say, “Knowledge is suffering” and others “Ignorance is bliss.” Either way, it means we can feel comfortable while we’re not aware of potential threats against us. Well, and unfortunately, I’m likely to make you uncomfortable.

This has to do with a progressive threat that initially started several years ago when global entities began trying to convince you to jump onto their path of continuous improvement so you could become sustainable and protect our earth from climate change. The first of these was the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB). Next was the environmental, social and governance sustainability standards pushed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and then we had governments around the globe that began issuing depopulation directives for cattle herds.

All of that was a bit complicated to understand, but soon became very unsettling when the abstract threat was actually implemented. That is, when the governments of the Netherlands and Ireland actually began demanding the depopulation of their respective cattle herds in the name of sustainability and climate concerns.

But there’s been another, and this one was as big a threat or even bigger than those we’ve already discussed. This one was so big that some said it’s the greatest threat to rural America, ever. And they say that because rural America is where our nation’s natural resources are located, and it’s those natural resources that were targeted by this latest threat.

Now that I’ve said all that, you need to know that what I’m about to describe has been officially and abruptly withdrawn. But you still need to know how aggressive and blatant the globalists are in their effort to strip away your property rights.

Here’s what went on:  The Securities and Exchange Commission was considering a proposed rule change that would, according to the proposal, create a new publicly traded asset that would own the rights to control the use of natural resources over both private and federally managed land, including national parks, for example.

So, let’s break this down because the proposal read like a frightening, futuristic, science-fiction movie about the destruction from within of America’s economic system.

First the players: The players were global corporations including the New York Stock Exchange, which is part of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., and the Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG), which is funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The players had asked the SEC to approve their plan, but we’ll call their plan the plot to their movie.

So, here’s the plot: The players wanted to create a new entity to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The new entity is called a Natural Asset Company, but it isn’t a company under the Exchange’s rules because it isn’t based on economic activity. In other words, it’s not designed to make money. Instead, it’s designed to allow private investors to lock up natural resources to limit economic activity on and with those resources. This means it’s designed to authorize private investors to limit agriculture, grazing, mining, logging, and fossil fuel extraction from federally managed lands, and to place similar limits on private lands for which there are conservation easements or other encumbrances that may already restrict the use of the lands.

You might wonder who these private investors might have been. Well, they could be anyone or any country because the Natural Asset Companies would be publicly traded. This means adversarial countries like China, which is controlled by a Communist party, could gain control over the United State’s otherwise sovereign right to control its natural resources.

This proposal was so far-fetched that it would require an entirely new accounting system because it’s not designed to generate value for investors. Consequently, in order to affect this plot, the SEC would have to rely on a proprietary accounting framework owned by one or more of the players mentioned earlier. And this new framework would assign some artificial value to non-monetized services. Now those non-monetized services, of course, would be the value of not using God’s creations, such as air, land, and water.

So, here’s the summary: The proposed rule change would make a mockery of private property rights by creating a virtual playground for global investors, replete with contrived renumerations and accounting, that promises to deprive landowners (including those who own water and grazing rights on federally managed land) of their right to the beneficial use and enjoyment of their private property. It would accomplish this insidious outcome by authorizing domestic and foreign corporations alike to seize control over that which makes private property property – the right to use and enjoy (i.e., to manage) the property’s surface and air above and water below in accordance with the owner’s desire.

In the face of overwhelming opposition by us and several other groups, including a group of 25 state attorneys general, On January 17 the NYSE voluntarily withdrew its rule change request to begin listing Natural Asset Companies on its Exchange. This is a big win for us, but we cannot rest because this global effort to capture private property rights away from Americans is certainly not over.

So, let’s all remain vigilant. The property rights alarm has now been duly sounded.

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R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary educates and informs both consumers and producers about timely issues important to the U.S. cattle and sheep industries and rural America. 

Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information visit www.r-calfusa.com or call (406) 252-2516.