Segment 1: Utah Public Lands Transfer Act S2 EP18 part 1

Utah Governor Gary Herbert recently signed HB148. This law requires the federal government to extinguish title to public lands and turn them over to the state to manage. The law leaves the National Parks, designated wilderness areas, and national monuments off the table (with the exception of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument). The idea behind the law is to turn over land management decision to the state in order to allow Utah to have more control over its own destiny.

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Segment 2: Utah Public Lands Transfer Act S2 EP18 part 2

Chad Booth sits down with Governor Gary Herbert to discuss the state's goals in asking for the federal government to turnover title to public lands in the state. In 1828 there was a similar movement by the western states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. What's the difference between a state like Arkansas and Utah?

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Segment 3: Utah Public Lands Transfer Act S2 EP18 part 3

The state is still assessing how it will take over management of federal lands. Right now the hope is to create a channel of communication that will allow both the state and federal agencies to work together in order to turn the land management responsibility to the state. Utah is prepared to work at this on many parallel fronts. First, they hope to negotiate and work towards solutions. Second, they will legislate, create laws that help bring about solutions. Finally, when the issues can't be solved by negotiation or legislation then the state will litigate and have the courts help to decide issues such as the definition of a road.

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Segment 4: Utah Public Lands Transfer Act S2 EP18 part 4

Federal management has made it more and difficult for projects to get done on public land. For example, the Bureau of Land Management has decided that it will decrease the acreage available for oil shale and oil sand development. The problems caused by federal agencies are often larger than they appear. In the case of oil shale and oil sand development the decrease in available land for lease makes it more difficult and less viable for companies to come in and extract the resource. If Utah had more control then the state could work at the local level with the companies in a non-adversarial relationship.

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