The numerous environmental laws passed since the late 1960s have done much good to protect the environment. However, the manner in which the federal government applied that protection has come at a steep cost. Millions of American families and thousands of communities are rapidly and unnecessarily losing their right to use their land or conduct business. Federal and state regulations also increasingly prohibit otherwise valid uses of land or conduct business in order to achieve some national social goal at the expense of the local community. These regulations are harming, even destroying the custom and economic foundation of rural communities and counties. Rural residents are not alone in this harm. Since the early 1990s, urban property owners increasingly are being harmed in the form of ill-conceived smart growth and comprehensive zoning requirements.

Older, experienced, and knowledgeable political leaders in America state that we should take important issues directly to the people. Solve the issue from the bottom up which means local people should make local decisions. These decisions should use existing laws made especially for “grassroots” to help their local government have joint and equal coordination with Federal and State Agencies to protect the environment. Not surprisingly, this is what the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution intends; “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”