Utah prepares for legal showdown with government over control of public lands
Sam Levin in San Francisco
Monday 14 March 2016 17.39 EDT
... Republican legislators have earmarked $4.5m in taxpayer funds for a potential lawsuit, which would seek state control of more than 31m acres of land that the federal government currently manages within Utah’s borders.
The substantial budget allocation and the increasingly serious threat of litigation put Utah in a position to be the next frontier in the contentious dispute over public lands in the west, with anti-government activists organizing in recent years to protest environmental and wildlife regulations that they say unfairly restrict ranching, logging and other land uses.
Conservative lawmakers have for months considered pursuing a high-stakes and expensive lawsuit, which officials now estimate could cost up to $14m total. The creation of a formal fund last week marks the first time the GOP-controlled legislature has set aside money for a legal battle that environmentalists say would be a waste of public dollars and, if successful, a catastrophe for wildlife and natural resources ...
“We know that state oversight would result in the destruction of the wildest landscapes in Utah,” said Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. He added: “It is outrageous that the state is appropriating more than $4m to fight a lawsuit that virtually all legal scholars agree is a loser” ...
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/14/utah-federal-government-public-lands-money-standoff
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