I admit I do not know a lot about the stock market (lawyers don’t do math, or at est this one doesn’t) but I do understand that the point of the stock market is to bring investors and companies together, allowing the investors to provide financial backing to receive a dividend or return on their investment. The first U.S. stock market was created in 1792. In 1817, that market was renamed the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). After the crash, the stock market in 1929, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SECC) to ensure transparency, fair prices for trading and a high degree of liquidity for traders. The SEC is a federal agency that works independently and without political pressure.

Unfortunately, that mission is about to change. ON Sept. 29, 2023, the SEC announced a proposed rule that looks to be politically motivated, does not protect investors because they never get a monetary return on their investments and harms the American economy rather than supporting it.

The proposed rue allows for the formation of private companies (called Natural Asset Companies (NACs) to acquire private ands and eliminate most all economic use of those lands. While I believe in the Constitutional protection for the use of private foreign governments (including those whose interests are completely averse to America) to acquire and eliminate use of private and public lands, while being funded through the NYSE.

This crazy trading scheme is based on several faulty premises. First, the ownership and use of private property is governed by state law, not federal law. As stated above, the SEC proposed rule specifically allows foreign ownership in NACs. According to research by the National Ag Law Center, in 2023 alone, 12 states passed laws restricting foreign ownership or investment in private lands located within their states. This is added to the 12 states that already have state laws limiting foreign ownership of private land within those states. Henry Kissinger famously said, “Who controls the food supply, controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.” Do we really want countries that hate America owning and controlling American agricultural land, energy production, timber assets and American minerals?

Second, the SEC equates “no use” to the conservation and sustainability of natural resources. This is a completely false premise. Often Human management is what sensitive environments need to keep them healthy. Not allowing human management to be part of “conservation” will be both detrimental to the environment, and to the natural resource industries that are essential to local economies.

It is frightening that a federal agency who is supposed to be independent would feel the political pressure to implement a rule on climate change. Comments are due to the SEC by Jan. 18, 2024. This proposed rule is not what the founding fathers would have envisioned.

Karen Budd-Falen has returned to the Budd-Falen Law Offices after her two-year appointment in the Trump Administration, Department of the Interior, as the Deputy Solicitor for Wildlife and Parks.