Local Government Cautious – Greens Outraged

BY: GERRY MINICK

Utah has apparently gotten the attention of the Obama Administration with what is being termed “message legislation.”

Like several other states, including Wyoming, Utah lawmakers feel that the federal government is over-reaching. They passed a law in March allowing the state to use eminent domain to take federal land and secure state access to coal and other resources.

The legislative effort was spurred on by the leaked “Monument Memo,” which detailed plans by the administration to bypass local input and designate additional monuments in the Beehive State.

The Department of Interior quickly issued a statement, saying the memo was nothing more than “brainstorming.”    

Governor Gary Herbert quickly signed the bill into law, prompting typical cries of outrage among environmentalists.

Meanwhile, Herbert had been urging Secretary Salazar for months to visit the state to discuss collaboration on land use issues.

Herbert and a slate of local governments have worked for months to resolve hostilities generated at the local level by Interior’s decision to rollback oil and gas leases issued during the Bush administration.       

Salazar said he “got the message” and will work to open dialogue about access. And he promised to listen to Utahns “on the ground” before designating more national monuments; that he is willing to collaborate and find a way forward on the question of whether Utah counties or the feds have jurisdiction over roads on public lands.

Current law requires local government to prove right-of-way claims in court.  

For his part, Salazar adopted a conciliatory tone, and the response from most attendees was cautious, but hopeful, though the public comment portion of the meeting was cut short.     

Mike McKee, a Uintah County Commissioner, has had an ongoing dialogue with Interior since the decision to rescind the Utah leases. Locals say the decision has had a disastrous effect on the economy in Eastern Utah.  

He attended the meeting and news gathering on Monday and said that he is encouraged to know there is an open dialogue with regard to the ongoing problem surrounding 77 Utah energy leases suspended in early 2009.

Large turnout expected

Public invited to submit questions

By Lisa Riley Roche – Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be in Utah Monday to meet with the Governor’s Balanced Resource Council.

“This will be the first time we’ve had the secretary of interior here at a public meeting,” Gov. Gary Herbert said in announcing the visit Thursday.
He said Salazar will talk with the council about public land issues, which are “fraught with emotion on all sides of the issue.”

The public is invited to attend the 10 a.m. meeting at the Capitol and to submit questions for the Democratic administration official. The governor initially had said attendees would be limited to “avoid confrontation and controversy” when asked if environmental activist Tim DeChristopher would be on the guest list. DeChristopher is charged with submitting false bids on federal oil leases.
“This is going to be a public meeting, so I guess those who show up will be allowed to come,” Herbert said. “There will be limited space, and we’ll have some we’ll want to make sure who are there.”

Herbert invited the secretary to Utah last November during a meeting in Washington, D.C. The governor said Salazar expressed interest in the council, which is made up of diverse environmental interests.
“It’s significant he’s willing to come here under any circumstances,” Herbert said, noting the state is at “ground zero on many of the public lands fights.

Just what the meeting will accomplish remains to be seen.
“Some of it is just better understanding. Part of the problem we’ve had in the past is just the lack of dialog and understanding,” the governor said. “We don’t talk to each other and perceive each other to be the enemy. I think everybody has good intentions on all sides of the issue with public lands.”

One issue likely to be addressed, he said, is the resource management plan for the Uintah Basin set aside by President Barack Obama’s administration.
“It’s something we ought to be able to move ahead with and not worry that somehow, for political purposes, the rug’s jerked out underneath us,” Herbert said, citing the economic importance of allowing drilling by companies that already have invested millions of dollars in the region.

The governor’s senior environmental advisor, Ted Wilson, acknowledged the meeting “is good public relations,” but said it is also key in furthering the state’s relationship with the administration on public lands issues.