Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** How Utah's latest anti-public lands lawsuit ignores history
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Monday, August 26, 2024
Fisher Towers, one of the landscapes managed by the BLM that could be impacted by the state of Utah's latest anti-public lands lawsuit. Source: BLM Utah, Flickr ([link removed]) .
Last week, the state of Utah filed a lawsuit to seize control of more than 18 million acres of federally managed land in the state. The suit targets lands ([link removed]) managed by the Bureau of Land Management that are not congressionally-designated national monuments, national conservation areas, or wilderness areas. The lawsuit bypasses lower courts ([link removed]) in an effort to petition the U.S. Supreme Court directly, which will decide whether or not it will even take up the case (the next Supreme Court term starts on Oct. 7, 2024).
In the West, states like Utah were territories ([link removed]) of federal land before they were admitted to the Union. When Utah became a state in 1894, the law admitting it to the Union ([link removed]) limited how much land the state could control. The Enabling Act of 1894 states ([link removed]) that Utah “shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose” than what was expressly given to them in the document.
“There’s pretty solid case law going back a very long time that says Congress has the authority over public lands,” said John Ruple ([link removed]) , University of Utah law professor. “There was no state land until the federal government created a state,” Ruple said ([link removed]) . “So when we hear people talk about Utah taking back land, it doesn't make a whole lot of historical sense, because Utah didn't own that land prior to federal acquisition.”
While Ruple and other legal experts are skeptical of the state’s long-shot bid to overturn management of federal lands, conservationists have issued warnings ([link removed]) of the wide-reaching ambitions of the complaint, which could gut the BLM, seize territory currently used for recreational purposes, oil and gas leasing, and ranching, and potentially transform the West. Michael Carroll, BLM campaign director for The Wilderness Society, said ([link removed]) the court system has “rejected legal and legislative efforts to seize public lands for decades,” and that he expects the “latest attempt by the state of Utah will have a similar result,” but also warned, “make no mistake, Utah’s wrong-headed lawsuit would have severe repercussions far beyond the state’s
borders if it succeeded.”
Episode 200 goes behind the scenes at CWP
For the 200th episode of The Landscape ([link removed]) , we brought the whole Center for Western Priorities team together to talk about what brought us each into conservation work, our favorite podcast episodes, and recount some of the most memorable moments we’ve had as public lands advocates.
** Quick hits
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How Utah's latest anti-public lands lawsuit ignores history
KUER ([link removed]) | Land Desk ([link removed]) | High Country News ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])
What works for fighting climate change? Forcing polluters to pay
Associated Press ([link removed])
Vegas-sized solar energy project could come to Nevada's smallest county, and residents are not thrilled
Nevada Independent ([link removed])
Chart: The U.S. is building a record amount of clean energy in 2024
Canary Media ([link removed])
More than 100 people rescued and one hiker still missing following flash flooding in the Grand Canyon
CNN ([link removed]) | Fox Weather ([link removed]) | Arizona Republic ([link removed])
Study: Plutonium levels near New Mexico atomic site similar to Chernobyl
The Guardian ([link removed])
Environmental groups join Arizona Tribes to protest Pinyon Plain uranium mine
ABC15 ([link removed])
Opinion: Time is running out to solve the Colorado River crisis
The Hill ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” The Utah Constitution is also clear in 'forever disclaim[ing] all right and title to the unappropriated public lands.’ Utah’s claims would require the Supreme Court to reinterpret both of those constitutional provisions in ways that are not intuitive, upsetting 150 years of settled Supreme Court law and destabilizing land ownership throughout the West. That’s a big lift.”
—John Ruple ([link removed]) , director of the Stegner Center's Law and Policy Program at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law.
** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
Happy 108th birthday to the @NationalParkService ([link removed]) !
For more than a century, the passionate and dedicated people of the National Park Service have cared for our country’s natural, cultural and historic treasures for future generations to enjoy.
Photo by Yueru Hao
#ParksThenAndNow ([link removed]) #YourParkStory ([link removed]) #usinterior ([link removed]) #nps108 ([link removed])
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