Utah lawsuit seeks state control over vast areas of federal land

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MATTHEW BROWN
Updated 6:32 PM CDT, August 20, 2024

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Republican leaders made good Tuesday on a decade-old vow to launch a legal challenge aimed at wresting control from the U.S. government over much of the federal lands that dominate the state.

The state’s attorney general said he asked to file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court in what is considered a long-shot attempt to assert state powers on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property across about one-third of Utah.

It marks the latest jab in a running feud between states and the U.S. government over who should control huge swaths of the West and the enormous oil and gas, timber, and other resources they contain.

Federal agencies combined have jurisdiction over almost 70% of Utah.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/utah-public-lands-state-control-lawsuit-6459622b4534dcdd150731c84ed2a7b9

[2naSalit]

1. Again?

They only want to rip it up for profit to a few.

[sakabatou]

2. Yup

Nature shall be ripped apart for profit.

[hunter]

3. That's OUR land, assholes, We the People of the United States of America.

We took it from people who were there before. You're not taking it from us.

It's a funny thing. My homesteading ancestors always spoke about their Indian friends, and I'm sure they were "friendly" in the good Christian sense they weren't raping or murdering or letting Indians starve like some of their neighbors did, but it never occurred to them to give the land back to those it had been taken from.

My wife's Native American ancestors lived in the area that's now the U.S.A. / Mexican border. They'd been driven across the border into Mexico by the U.S. Army and returned to the U.S.A. as "immigrants," mostly as farm workers. My wife's dad was born in a tent to Mexican parents near a small farm my parents later owned.

I never knew the depth of my Wild West family's racism, largely because my Hollywood Liberal parents had shielded me and my siblings from it, until my wife and I announced our engagement. My grandfather went completely bonkers. Men in HIS family simply did not marry, in his own words, "Mexican girls." He boycotted our wedding.

To his credit, he mostly got over it.

Anyways, these regressive people in Utah fondly recall a time when if you were white and had friends in high places, and you wanted to exploit the land for profit, then you could just take it. The government would give you a piece of paper that said the land was yours.

For developers, ranchers, and mining companies, it's a lot easier to buy state and local officials than it is to buy federal officials.

There is less federally protected land, and less Indian land towards the East for historical reasons, but that's no reason to give away public lands in the West. Maybe, instead, we should be restoring and rewilding lands in the East for the benefit of all Americans.

If we continue to act as if some vile god gave us the earth to trash as we please then we will all suffer, most especially those who come after us.