tells us the story of a really beef-headed lawsuit the State of Utah recently filed against the federal government. In the lawsuit, the state claims that the feds are unlawfully holding onto most of the state’s land. They claim that this “unappropriated” land should be given to the state. But, asBecause these states were largely unsettled by people of European descent at the time they became part of the United States, the federal government ended up in ownership of most of it.
But, those economic uses can be a little tough and sometimes impossible to get a lease for. The federal government is subject to environmental protection laws that limit what people can do when mining, drilling for oil, ranching, and more. Even people seeking to film Hollywood movies have to pay fees and avoid damaging the land.The State of Utah has been seriously trying to gain control of public lands since the 1970s.
Utah’s government feels that federally held land doesn’t benefit the state, but they don’t mention that BLM land greatly benefits local economies, bringing in travelers from around the planet. The state also gets what are called “payments in lieu of taxes,” where the state gets over $100 million annually to make up for not being able to levy property taxes on federal land.