Utah to take land back from Federal government

Good day all. With all the stories regarding fake rapes and the political death of Mary Landrieu, this little gem slipped under the radar. The state of Utah has decided it is going to reclaim territory taken by the Federal Government.

For decades, the Federal government has been taking territory away from any number of states, although most of them are in the Western United States. In some cases, the majority of a state’s territory is actually federal property and the states can’t do anything to develop or use it. Well, Utah seems to have had enough of this and has decided to take their land back. Here are the details from The Washington Times:

In three weeks, Utah intends to seize control of 31.2 million acres of its own land now under the control of the federal government. At least, that’s the plan. In an unprecedented challenge to federal dominance of Western state lands, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 signed the “Transfer of Public Lands Act,” which demands that Washington relinquish its hold on the land, which represents more than half of the state’s 54.3 million acres, by Dec. 31

Now for those of us in the East, allow me to explain what this means. The federal government can, for all intents and purposes, come into a state and simply take any and all public lands with the wave of a Presidential pen. This is done using the Antiquities Act. When the act was first passed, it was generally used to protect places like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone. Of late, it’s been used to block development on land such as mining or drilling for minerals or sale to private industry for other uses. The biggest boosters of these sorts of land grabs have been the radical environmentalists with the willing aid of Progressive Liberal Fascist Democratic presidents such as Obama and Clinton. (I can’t be certain, but I think Bush did this as well) The response from the Federal Government has been underwhelming to say the least.

So far, however, the federal government hasn’t given any indication that it plans to cooperate. Still, state Rep. Ken Ivory, who sponsored the legislation, isn’t deterred.

“That’s what you do any time you’re negotiating with a partner. You set a date,” said Mr. Ivory. “Unfortunately, our federal partner has decided they don’t want to negotiate in good faith. So we’ll move forward with the four-step plan that the governor laid out.”

In other words, there won’t be any escorting of federal officials by state troopers to the eastern border. Instead, he said, state officials will proceed with a program of education, negotiation, legislation and litigation.

Damn. I was hoping that Utah would show up at the gates and do just that.

“We’re going to move forward and use all the resources at our disposal,” said Mr. Ivory, who also heads the American Lands Council, which advocates the relinquishing of federal lands to the control of the states.

Does that mean you will send in the state police with backing from the state National Guard? Well I can hope, can’t I? Now what started this business with Utah anyway?

With the 2012 law, Utah placed itself on the cutting edge of the heated debate over public lands in the West. The federal government controls more than 50 percent of the land west of Kansas — in Utah’s case, it’s 64.5 percent, a situation that has increasingly resulted in tensions across the Rocky Mountain West.

I think Nevada has something like 90% of its territory controlled by the Federal Government, and I don’t mean just Area 51 and Nellis Air Force base either. Of course, there are those who are utterly opposed to Utah and other states moving to reclaim their territory.

On the other side of the debate is the environmental movement, led by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which argues that transferring federal lands to state control “makes it harder to protect Utah’s wild lands for all Americans.” Washington, environmentalists argue, is a better steward of Utah’s natural riches than Salt Lake City.

Gee, what a big surprise, NOT! As I mentioned above, these so called “Green” organizations have been at the forefront of these land grabs for years.

Staff attorney David Garbett argues that the report shows Utah would be unable to afford managing the federal lands without selling them or subjecting them to heavy development.

“When will the legislature realize that the public does not want to see the Wasatch Mountains barricaded with ‘No Trespassing’ signs, the Book Cliffs lost to tar sand strip mines or Arches National Park ringed with oil and gas development?” he said in a statement.

You mean unlike the no trespassing signs installed by the United States Government? Of course, these Progressive Socialist groups can’t stand the thought of anyone, be it an individual, or a sovereign state actually managing their own affairs.

The group launched a radio and television campaign this week aimed at drumming up opposition to the plan, describing it as a “land grab.” The ads allege that managing the lands would be so costly that Utah would be forced to sell or lease them to private developers.

I can see it now. Here these elitists are, sitting in their plush Washington D.C. offices saying “How DARE those peons do this! Don’t they know that we are far better educated in managing their lands then they are? The nerve of these people! Pity that a study was done to look into how the federal government is doing in handling the land they have taken.

The report, conducted over 18 months by analysts at three state universities, found that Utah would incur an additional $280 million in costs to manage the lands, but would bring in some $331.7 million in royalties from mineral resources development, mainly oil and gas. Currently Utah receives only half the royalties from drilling that is allowed on federal lands inside its borders.

Well, that’s one point against the Washington elites.

The study also found that while small amounts of federal ownership could stimulate economic growth in counties, such management becomes a “drag” on most counties after they reach 40 percent to 45 percent ownership, adding that, “twenty of Utah’s 29 counties exceed this threshold.”

And there’s the second point. All you need to do to see just how poorly the federal government is at managing land is look at the forest fires that happen each year. Since the federal government won’t allow logging, huge amounts of diseased and dead trees, along with huge amounts of undergrowth build up and become fuel for fires.

On privately owned or state lands that allow logging, those fires either don’t happen or don’t race out of control in many cases. Why? Because they clear out the sick and dead trees and clear away the underbrush. They also are quick to take care of fires and their causes since a pile of ash is worth nothing while a tree is worth money when sold to the lumber industry.

As far as Mr. Ivory is concerned, however, shifting management to the states would be far preferable than keeping the lands under the increasingly tight control of the federal government.

“Under increasing federal control, access is being restricted. The health of the land is diminishing horribly. And the productivity is depressed,” Mr. Ivory said. “This is the only way to get better access, better health and better productivity.”

And I say more power to you. In fact, it might be time to revisit the Antiquities Act and either repeal it, or modify it so that some narcissistic, egomaniac of a president wont’ decide to just take all the land that belongs to a state and put it under federal control. (Yes I do mean Obama, and also Clinton)

One of the interesting sidebars to this movement is people who follow this thing called “Agenda 21.” This is a non-binding agreement out of the United Nations with regards to “Sustainable Development” of the Earth. The Tin Foil Hat brigade thinks that the Agenda 21 project is a secret plan to depopulate the central and western United States and pack all the people into cities on the coasts where they can be controlled.

Personally, I don’t believe that is what is happening. I think it’s just plan old Progressivism with a large dose of bureaucratic empire building with a side of utter incompetence at work. The United States Federal Government has grown far beyond it’s constitutional limits and the Utah law is just one of many plans and projects at the state, and in many cases individual level seeking to roll things back. More power to them I say!

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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