Transcripts. Bannon’s War Room. Margaret Byfield Discusses The Dangers Of Natural Asset Companies. January 4, 2024.
Topic. Natural Asset Companies. Guest Frank Gaffney and Margaret Byfield. January 4, 2024.
Transcripts from War Room on Rumble: Margaret Byfield Discusses The Dangers Of Natural Asset Companies
January 4, 2024.
Steve Bannon
Let bring Margaret. Here's the one thing we tried to do with the War Room Posse. The reason it's been such a powerful political and cultural force. We try to explain to people the nomenclature that kind of structure the critical path. So it just takes it to go back to the beginning. Natural Asset Companies. What? What's the concept here? How did it get this advanced? And now we're now we got a man the ramparts for comments. I mean, how did this happen? Who conceived it and where is it going?
Margaret Byfield
OK, so well first off, thanks for having me on and thanks for exposing this issue. This is really one of the most important things happening to our nation right now that very few people really know about. So, I'm glad you're really focused on it. So, the natural asset companies first thing to understand about them is who created them in America. There's a group called the Intrinsic Exchange Group. You can go to their website and read all about NACs and what they're planning to do there. They were our group that was founded by the Rockefeller Foundation. So that should be the first clue that we should be very wary of this.
The NACs create a new investment vehicle. That's what they are trying to get the SEC to approve so that our protected resources and lands and assets so, all the things that the climate crisis cartel has been moving to get under protection. So, they've been pushing the agenda 30 by 30 in America. Which is to permanently protect 30% of our land and oceans in America.
They're doing it worldwide. All of this effort to protect the land, conserve the land, restore the land. Those are all the best words has been moving to this point to where they get enough of our lands under production, out of the control of the private land owners so they could be...
Steve Bannon
Well, hang on. OK, hang. Hang on, hold, hold, hang on one second. Everything to date sounds like Mom and apple pie. Of course, we all like to conserve our land. We all like to nurture our land. This exchange, is this not just for public lands like controlled by the Interior Department? This is for any land that's out there and they feel that they can put it into a company and then control it any land?
Margaret Byfield
Yeah. So, let's, let's break it down a little bit. If you're familiar with the conservation easement on private land, that is a device that the Land Trust, your big environmental land trusts like The Nature Conservancy have been pushing on landowners for a lot of years. The idea is, how they sell it to the landowners is that if you enroll in a conservation easement then your land will never be developed, and so landowners buy into this because they think oh this means I can pass my land down. I don't have to worry about it becoming subdivisions. It can always be in agriculture and that's what they're sold.
But the practicality of that of what really happens with conservation easement is the development right is sold to the Land Trust. They now own that asset. All the restrictions what you can and can't do on that land are now what the landowners have to live with.
They're the ones that are told they can only have one house on the land. They can repair a fence. They can't build a new fence. Everything on the day that that conservation easement is signed, what's happening on that land, that's the baseline. That's what can continue. And so, you can do things in the contract and write certain things in, but you have to anticipate everything that you might want to do on that land in perpetuity.
These conservation easements are signed in perpetuity, meaning forever. So forever, that Land Trust now owns the development rights, which is arguably the most valuable part of that piece of property. You can go to the nature conservancies balance sheet, and you will see in the billions how much they own in conservation easements worldwide. So now that conservation easement, which they own, can be enrolled in a NAC.
Steve Bannon
Hang up. Hang on for one second. Hang. Hang on one second. Hang. Hang on. Hang on a second. Does the landowner have to? There's not eminent domain. Now let's leave the public lands out. I'm talking about private land owners. There's no eminent domain. These people set these companies up. Does the landowner get paid, get compensated, either cash or stock in the company for putting his land into this entity?
Margaret Byfield
So, it depends. So, the land, let's take the conservation easement. That development right, that conservation easement can be enrolled in the NAC with or without the landowner’s permission. And it's going to be the Land Trust. That is going to reap the profits from that. Now a landowner can enroll in the NAC. They can say, hey, I agree with this concept. I want to put my land in. They can do that, but it's not, it's going to be, I think it's going to be very difficult for a landowner to do that because what you have a NAC has to be managed. For its sustainability, so there there are only certain activities that now can be take place on the land…
Steve Bannon
But if you get but hang on. But if you get, if you get cashed out, if they give you cash, or they give you stock.
Yeah, you got to abide by. It's like selling your company. You gotta abide by, you know, if you sell it, somebody else owns it. If you're still part of management, you got to go along with what the the guys put up the capital. Why is that any different. At the beginning of the transaction, you've got one. You've got the easements or the eminent domain that's a whole different deal with it. Just kind of come and take it and never really give you. Adequate compensation. But I imagine that's a pretty small percentage. Most of this has to be willing land owners throwing their land in for some sort of compensation.
Margaret Byfield
Not necessarily, no, because what that's what's been happening in our country for the past three years under the Biden administration. On the private land in particular, they have been selling the conservation programs to landowners. So, there's a federal nexus on the land. A lot of landowners are doing climate smart projects, conservation easements, conservation reserve programs on their land, which is the federal government paying the money to do these conservation practices? That creates a federal nexus to the land. And this is one of the issues that Senator Ricketts raised in his letter, signed with Crapo and Rish from Idaho early on in this back in October, are these lands that have these federal programs on it, can they be enrolled in a NAC without the landowners’ permission and of course SEC hasn't responded to them on that yet.
But when you look at the definition, that's the real danger here is landowners are going to be enrolled in this without even knowing it without having a say in it. And what happens once they do? They no longer control their land. Because this SEC rule not only allows the enrollment of these assets into the NACs, but then it also gives management authority to the NACs over these lands.
So now translate that to our federal lands. So, the rule very clearly says in Exhibit 3 our national parks can be enrolled in these NACs. These natural asset companies and then it gives management authority to the natural asset companies over all the assets held in the NACs. So now who is managing our federal lands and our parks?
Steve Bannon
Yeah, let's, let's talk to about. If and, I know this comment. I just wanted if people were asking him to go to the site Frank, and to make kind of make comments. This is a SEC. How did the SEC? I mean this would have to be a massive federal law to allow the public lands that are really essentially owned in kind of trust by the government for the American people to transfer them into some sort of private entity or some sort of other entity, even managed.
That's just not something the SEC can come up.. because the SEC is basically approving the structure of something that will be publicly traded. That's what their purpose is, to protect Aunt Daisy in Minnesota, right. They have no jurisdiction or no authority to start taking, you know Department of Interior, I think owns what 75% of the lands West of the Mississippi or something like that is some huge massive amount of land. They don't have the jurisdiction to just sit there and go, oh yeah, we're going to get the SEC to prove to sign up these companies that we're going to start putting in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park and some of these forest up in the Pacific Northwest.
Margaret Byfield
Yeah, we've argued that in our comments. We've argued that. We have the same concerns, but what what has happened is New York Stock Exchange which...
Steve Bannon
Hold up, Margaret. But are you saying? Hang on, hang. But are you saying I understand we're going to comment. Are you saying actually, the way this is structured right now, that the Biden regime can just once these once the SEC approves the vessel of the structure of the financial part of this that they can then without going to Congress, start just putting in massive federal lands into these into these natural assets?
Margaret Byfield
Yes, yes, that's exactly what it looks like. There's no process in there for any other approval. So right now, so.
Frank Gaffney
And they're preparing to do it. Steve, too. I mean, let's be clear, this isn't just a prospect. That's the plan that is going forward now, is it not Margaret.
Margaret Byfield
What New York Stock exchange? Yeah. So let me give you an example. The Bureau of Land Management, which manages the most of the land in the West. They have been in the process of, they have proposed a new planning rule in which they will no longer prioritized the multiple uses defined by Congress on the management of these lands. They are prioritizing conservation as the priority use of the lands.
This is what this rule essentially, would do. And in this new rule they are creating conservation leases so that an entity can go out and they can secure a conservation lease on lands that today is being used for grazing, mining, oil and gas. And then once that conservation lease goes in, that's all that can happen on that. And then that lease can be enrolled in the NAC.
Steve Bannon
But so OK, here's. OK, hang on here. I realize you got the SEC. We're going to give comments. The audience is all in. You have this thing called the House of Representatives, the House, BLM and all these guys come for an annual budget. Everything about those lands is kind of micromanaged. I mean, congressman in the West understand this in the inner Mountain West and in Arizona. BLM it probably takes up 50% of their time. Besides things like the border. Are you telling me Congress, House of Representatives controlled by the Republicans, have signed off on this?
Margaret Byfield
No, they haven't. But I will tell you that the IG and the New York Stock Exchange briefed the Financial Services Committee staffs and the LA's from all the members of the staff. And after that briefing, they decided that the committee would not be involved in this because it is from a self-regulatory organization, the New York Stock Exchange. And what I was told by one of the staffers is that they will get involved if it's approved and then they will look at filing a bill that would maybe regulate this.
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