Utah demands US government return public lands to state
Source: Reuters
Utah demands US government return public lands to state
24 Mar 2012 04:10
Source: reuters // Reuters
By Debbie Hummel
SALT LAKE CITY, March 23 (Reuters) - The state of Utah, long resentful that almost two thirds of its territory belongs to the U.S. government, says the time has come to reclaim land it gave up more than a century ago in order to become a U.S. state.
Governor Gary Herbert, a Republican, signed into law on Friday a bill demanding that the federal government relinquish ownership of roughly 30 million acres (12 million hectares) of public land in Utah by 2015 or face a state lawsuit challenging its continued control of that property.
Shrugging off warnings from state attorneys that the legislation, backed primarily by Republicans, is likely unconstitutional and could lead to a protracted but futile legal battle, Herbert called such a dispute "a fight worth having."
The measure, opposed by conservation groups, caps years of rising indignation in Utah's conservative political establishment over the fact that about 65 percent of the Western state's land mass is owned by various federal agencies, the bulk of it by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/utah-demands-us-government-return-public-lands-to-state
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Governor Gary Herbert[/center]
GreydeeThos
(958 posts)Theyre going to lose
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 24, 2012, 07:08 PM - Edit history (1)
The allegiance of their cronies. In every state, they're doing it. This would be a huge win for them in UT and they're pushing the sell off of all public lands in the GOP controlled US Congress now. With that much land in their hands, they'd set up their feifdoms and rule as they please. Welcome to neo-feudalism, complete with religious doctrine. It would be naive to deny that's what they want.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)and his followers, let them wander around in the desert for 40 days and nights to see if they still want to play American Taliban....then let Utah rent them the land to set up their own kingdom.
He might take that as a sure deal, instead of subjecting us to commercials for what would probably be a losing campaign. Might even convince Etch-a-Sketch to come with him, make him head of finance or something.
Botany
(70,291 posts)Now can the Dept. of Interior bill the state of Utah for managing those
lands for the past 100 + years? How about just the costs for fighting
forest fires that Uncle Sam picked up?
BTW Governor please don't use any of the roads and or infrastructure on those public
lands and now go and hire some more professionals to do the range land management too.
And Utah can also pay back all the money that Zion National Park has brought into the
State too.
Dumb ass right wing tea bagging shit for brains idiots.
stonecutter357
(12,682 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)Utah has more national parks than any other state. Bryce, Arches, Zion, etc. There's a bunch there.
Probably wants to turn Zion into a Mormon based amusement park. It's already appropriately named.
alfredo
(60,065 posts)Frank Cannon
(7,570 posts)What a tool this guy is.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Two headers that caught my eye:
State Republicans spearhead effort to reclaim the land
Conservation groups are opposed to the move
Say no more!
CanonRay
(14,038 posts)and the big push is on to get their agenda in before it all comes crashing down.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)and all the money that paid for Central Utah Project.
and all the money they made because the Feds protected lands Utah would've detonated bombs on if given the chance. (except for Gov. Matheson)
alfredo
(60,065 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)MatthewStLouis
(904 posts)Maybe any state which receives more tax dollars than it gives needs to have its statehood legitimacy examined.
Crowman1979
(3,844 posts)The only ones demanding it are corrupt state governments.
Botany
(70,291 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 24, 2012, 08:11 PM - Edit history (1)
Sorry about Park City, Utah Gov. the nasty federal government couldn't
get to the fire.
Love, Barack Obama
underpants
(182,279 posts)and my first read of this was "A black guy has our land!!" I think that is what this is about
mercuryblues
(14,491 posts)Governor Herbet. I demand you give women back their uteruses.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)on firefighting to preserve those lands over the decades, and all the trails and campgrounds and ranger stations built, and all the wildlife management and protection efforts, etc etc etc.
It's probably many many billions of dollars. We'll be waiting.
(crickets chirping)
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Another day, another republican moron fucking up our country.
glinda
(14,807 posts)EC
(12,287 posts)to manage more land? Or does he have corps lined up ready to buy it for a song?
alfredo
(60,065 posts)bluedigger
(17,077 posts)What possible harm could come from fracking the shit out of Arches National Park?
glinda
(14,807 posts)RevStPatrick
(2,208 posts)...would be to secede from the Union.
That's sure to go over well!
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)means future wastelands for our children. When I read sci-fi books and watch sci-fi movies, this comes to mind. It won't be nothing left to enjoy, well at least for us "little" people. Greed upon Greed, use up the environment for profit. Fuck these assholes. We need to vote this MFs out!
newspeak
(4,847 posts)is give the oil corporations and mining carte blanche. I lived in Moab and environmentalism is very, very important in that area. Nothing like going to one of the state parks and seeing an obscene oil drill.
Some of the most beautiful areas in the world. I still miss it.
And talk about fracking, if they did that in the moab area, it's a lot of fault lines. going into arches national park, driving up, you can see the fault line.
underpants
(182,279 posts)Welfare receipts
Church leaders have encouraged their flock to take advantage of government assistance in the form of welfare and the WIC (woman-infant-child) programs.[citation needed] Since the government recognizes only one woman as the legal wife of a man, the rest of his wives are considered single mothers and are eligible to receive government assistance. The more wives and children one has, the more welfare checks and food stamps one can receive. By 2003, for example, more than $6 million dollars in public funds were being channeled into the community of Colorado City, AZ. In his book Under the Banner of Heaven (p. 15), Jon Krakauer writes that, "Fundamentalists call defrauding the government 'bleeding the beast' and regard it as a virtuous act." Carolyn Campbell ("Inside Polygamy in the '90s,", 102) adds, "The attitude of some polygamists is 'the government is untrustworthy and corrupt, and I'm above it, but give me those food stamps and free medical care.'"[83]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints#Welfare_receipts
A well known practice of Mormons
Crowman1979
(3,844 posts)Tikki
(14,539 posts)The Shoshoni, Piaute, Ute, Navajo and Goshute. Y/N?
Tikki