Posted on 04/19/2014 5:45:13 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Officials from nine Western states met in Salt Lake City on Friday to discuss taking control of federal lands within their borders on the heels of a standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management.
The lawmakers and county commissioners discussed ways to wresting oil-, timber- and mineral-rich lands away from the feds. --snip--
"What's happened in Nevada is really just a symptom of a much larger problem," Lockhart said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The Legislative Summit on the Transfer of Public Lands, as it was called, was organized by Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory and Montana state Sen. Jennifer Fielder. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, addressed the group over lunch, the Tribune reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yea, although i think he understates the sheer scale of the problem in the west.
Its not simply the taxes for our schools, the bully army of the BLM or even fair land uses disputes that fall on Washington’s Deaf ears. From this Federal land Washington Dictates everything from water policy(A most scare and critical resource in the west) to air quality policy’s with a level of detail and control that would offend any eastern state, and in itself significantly inhibits the economic opportunity of the West.
This is an enormous issue, indeed measuring by sheer land areas it is the largest issue in the west. who has for too long had to live under this growing problem.
The western state must be allowed to buy their land, just like the eastern states were!
“Why should we buy our own land? Our taxes already go to pay for the BLM and their activities. It’s like paying a fee to get your own money out of the bank.”
I agree it is, but we are going have a hard time convening greedy eastern to give up their death grip on our lands for free. But we can overtime buy the land just as they did before Washington unilaterally stopped selling it in the 1970’s.
That is the deal we can both live with. Washington Needs the money and we need the land out of their bureaucratic hands.
That is amazing, D.C. horde less land in the federal District Where they are suppose to own everything, than they do in Nevada or any other western state!
Talk about rubbing salt in to the wound of injustice!
100 times more.
The federal government owns 628,801,639 acres.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf
The federal debt is ~$17.6 trillion. http://www.usdebtclock.org/
$28 thousand an acre for mostly desert scrub brush?
Sorry, what I pasted in italics was not what I copied.
My point is that the Land belongs to the individual States and not the Federal Government.
Selling the land to pay off the national debt is not a legal option.
Harry Reid seems to think he can sell it to China to line his own pockets. That's the kind of stewardship we have come to expect from federal ownership.
Not by a long shot. Mineral rights often sell for a few hundred dollars an acre. It is in the royalties, share of minerals actually produced that contains the real payments.
I bet a lot of states, not just those in the West would like to get these lands under their control. I presume Congress can make this decision. Hopefully, it can be raised as an issue with a bill that could garner support.
Mineral rights have historically sold on the cheap.
When I was mining coal, we gave the land owner $1 per ton (which was higher than usual) while the coal sold for $36/ton fob the mine.
I agree, but you should remember In Nevada or any other State land Owned in title by any foreign government is no different than land owned in title by any private owner. It is Subject to the laws & taxes of the State.
The problem in the west with Federal land is that that land is NOT subject to the laws of the State, It can’t be tax, so there is no cost to horde it, and it is often used as legal justification for other federal impositions upon the neighbors. (basically the whole state in the west)
Let China buy the title, it doesn’t matter who owns it, as long as its not Washington they won’t be in a position to horde and lord over it like Washington does abusively. Because China cannot claim supremacy over our State laws.
You are talking about royalties, not mineral rights.
Mineral rights, the right to go explore and then pay royalties on what you produce, is far less.
“I bet a lot of states, not just those in the West would like to get these lands under their control. I presume Congress can make this decision. Hopefully, it can be raised as an issue with a bill that could garner support.”
That is unfortunately not the case, out east your talking less than 10% and the land the Feds do retain are simply not worthy of State or private attention in most cases.
Indeed a lot of the lands in the west are even particularly valuable at this time, just as most of the lands the Feds now hold in the west weren’t particularity valuable.
But populations grow and technology changes making lands once unworthy of buying valuable and needed again.
What there is left in the East is only a small faction of the State, Yes no doubt a lot of eastern states would like to take management and tax control over some of it but not all.
All the west really needs is the same right to buy the land the East has enjoyed for more than 200 years. It was the losing of this right in the 1970’s that started the sagebrush rebellion, and numerous other major economic obsticals in the west that eastern don’t have to deal with.
All the west wants is an equal footing with the east in regard to their state’s land. Is that too much to ask?
Simply done - A constitutional amendment that limits federal ownership of lands within a state to 20 percent.
Again, the fed nearly always has a fire sale on the mineral rights and royalties for valuable minerals, plus there is rarely any regard to reclamation of mined lands (except for coal.) Mining companies snap up these sales, then sit on them for decades to protect the value of their current extractions.
I am in my 9th decade and in all my days never did I think that I would see this nation in such a condition that the states themselves would be talking about secession-like actions. It is living proof of what can happen when good men sit silent and do nothing.
The u tube mentions a mineral that is needed to produce jet fuel. It is abundant in the land Reid already owns and in the area where Bundys cows graze. Not worthless grazing land!
Don’t forget Hillary’s 2009 trip using eminent domain on federal land as collateral for our loans from the Chinese
mineral rights, could be nearly priceless.
My family owns mineral rights on land in several areas of Texas and even though we only own a fraction of a percent of the minerals we regularly get unsolicted offers of half a million or more for them. Now... this is JUST the mineral rights, we don’t even own the land anymore.
Much of this land by the way would appear to be just worthless scrub if you were to see it while driving by.
Now imagine how much federal land in scenic areas like Wyoming and Colorado is worth.
Agreed. Just take it and kick any federal worker off the property.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.