Opinion: Utah Gop just continues to try to take our public lands for mining, drilling – Realvail

If the definition of madness does the same thing over and over, while in vain it hopes for different results, then Utah leaders should certainly talk to a mental health specialist.

Recently, the US Supreme Court briefly dismissed Utah’s lawsuit, which won the support of 12 states. It was the most in a series of unsuccessful attempts to control the public lands by the American people.

Why Utah continues in her quest to privatize her priceless assets on public soil is puzzling. Managed by the Land Management Bureau, these lands are appreciated by mountain cyclists, hunters, tourists, camps and photographers. Many connect with national parks and monuments and it is difficult to imagine that their sale would ever be a popular move.

In its complaint, the state claims that the US Constitution forbade the Federal Government from holding “unnoticed” public lands indefinitely and that these lands must be handed over to the state. In addition to the state inventing its own definition of the word “unlawful”, the lawsuit refers to the selective reading of the Constitution that the Supreme Court is reasonably ignored.

The state paid $ 500,000 to the lawyers who wrote this unsuccessful complaint and spent over $ 1.3 million on a public relations campaign aimed at convincing Yutan that the state would be a better manager of the federal government. Add this to approximately $ 4 million, which the state has wasted in unsuccessful attempts to seize public land in the last decade and you are inventing nearly $ 6 million.

Public lands make a lot of money for Utah. Outdoor recreation generated $ 9.5 billion in economic production in 2023, according to the Ministry of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. And it grows to an average annual 8.4 percent – the highest of each country. World -renowned national public lands in Utah attract millions of visitors every year, who then spend money in hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses.

The Federal Government spends over $ 300 million a year (corrected for inflation) on the management of public lands in Utah spending that the state would have difficult to cover was its efforts to catch the ground. A 2014 survey commissioned by state legislators found that the state would only be able to pay these costs if it would aggressively increase the oil and gas drill or sell any land.

Utah is currently taking advantage of federal management dollars, which run annually, as well as $ 50 million direct payments to counties containing public land and $ 90 million in federal oil and gas wages.

However, a useful agreement, state legislators are constantly treating public lands as a burden, not an asset. Utah’s legislators have been trying to take control of national public lands since the 1980s. Utah Senator Orin Hatch introduced a bill in 1981, which reflects a recent Supreme Court’s recent appeal. At that time, in 2012, the legislators of Utah, the law on the transfer of public lands to Utah to take control of the same public land identified in the Supreme Court’s appeal.

The efforts continued in 2017, when Utah Republican representative Jason Chaffets filed a bill to transfer federal land to the United States. He was forced to withdraw his account after hunters and fishermen protested greatly. Today, the Republican Senator of Utah Mike Lee insists on legislation that would facilitate the sale of public lands of developers, claiming that lands are necessary for the construction of homes at affordable prices.

Most Jutans do not want what their representatives continue to try to achieve. The public lands are incredibly popular in Utah and in the West. The survey of Colorado College found that the majority of Utani – including Republicans – supported the conservation of public lands due to their operation for oil and gas.

Although it is difficult to believe, the state will most likely continue its crusade to seize and sell public lands, losing even more money from taxpayers in the lower courts.

Utas has to tell their leaders once and for all to stop wasting their time and money for this wild goose pursuit and embrace the ongoing gift of American public lands – not trying to sell them.

Editor’s note: Aaron Weiss is an associate of the writers of the range, Writersontherange.org, an independent non -profit purpose dedicated to stimulating a lively conversation about the West. He is the deputy director of the Western Priority Center.

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