BlueRibbon Coalition is an association of off-highway vehicle and related industry groups that promotes motorized vehicle access to public lands while using overblown and misleading rhetoric to oppose conservation efforts.
• Executive Director Ben Burr formerly worked for Senators Mike Lee and Ben Sasse
• The coalition is an association of off-highway vehicle clubs and industry groups opposed to conservative initiatives
• The group opposes wildlife designations and updated land management plans, calling them “wilderness laundering,” and has previously received funding from the oil and gas industry.
• Ben Burr, Executive Director
BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC) is an association of off-highway vehicle (OHV) clubs and related industry groups that oppose conservation initiatives. The coalition, which also calls itself “ShareTrails,” opposes the Biden Administration’s America the Beautiful Conservation initiative that aims to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030, erroneously calling it a “clear effort to lock people out of their land.”
BRC consistently opposes conservation initiatives with extreme rhetoric, especially wilderness designations and updated land management plans, which BRC calls “wilderness laundering.” BRC claims that monument designations like Bears Ears National Monument are “blatant attacks.”
BRC has been explicitly tied to the oil and gas industry in the past and still benefits from the support and membership of timber, mining, and OHV industry groups.
Though membership dues make up a significant amount of BRC’s income, the group gets most of its money from grants from the OHV industry. In the past, BRC received major donations from corporations including Exxon.
BRCs current executive director previously worked for anti-public lands Utah Senator Mike Lee until 2018.
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