MoabGas History
Utah's SITLA/BLM Land Swap Does Not Benefit the People or the Land
This section Courtesy KCPW News, July 09, 2009
"U.S. House Unanimously Approves SITLA
Land Swap", by Elizabeth Ziegler
(KCPW News) The U.S. House of
Representatives unanimously approved a
land swap with the Utah School and
Institutional Trust Lands Administration
(SITLA)
yesterday. If approved by the Senate,
it will authorize a patchwork assortment
of more than 40,000 acres of SITLA lands
to be transferred to the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM)
in exchange for a similar amount of land
in the oil and gas-rich Uintah Basin.
However, Congressman Jim Matheson, who
sponsored the legislation, says it does
more than that.
"It
acknowledged that there's recreational
value to this area right along the
Colorado River corridor and taking that
out of potential development had value,"
Matheson says. "And in return, the
state got some oil and gas properties
for that type of development instead."
SITLA believes oil and gas development
on the Uintah Basin land could add tens
of millions of dollars to the school
trust fund. A portion of the interest
from the fund is distributed to Utah
schools each year.
Matheson says this is the first time that
recreational value was taken into
consideration for such a federal land swap.
The value of public land has traditionally
been based on the value of potential
development or resource extraction. He
believes the bill will set a precedent for
future legislation. Liz Thomas with the
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in
Moab hopes it will.
"We do
hope it can serve as a model because this
land exchange bill, honestly, it's been
years in the making and it was in the end
supported by pretty much all sides," Thomas
says. "And that's pretty unheard of."
Thomas says the land swap would represent a significant step toward protecting many scenic areas around Moab, including one of the largest red rock formations in the region, Corona Arch. - (End of KCPW Story)
July 2009 Author's Note: On a higher
level, it is sad to see that we shall
concentrate our destructive and extractive
forces in one area. If we were Uintah Basin
Native Americans, we might think that this
is not such a good idea.
Compromising our environment in favor of
increased old-energy extraction and
production will only hasten the day of
our demise. Each new scar that we place
upon the land has local, regional and
worldwide environmental consequences.
With this knowledge to guide us, can we
still afford to create new environmental
ghettos; overdeveloped, over-extracted,
overgrazed and prone to
1930s-style dust storms?
Email
James McGillis
July 2024 Author's Note: Since
the writing of this article in 2009, the
Black Mesa Mine, Black Mesa and Lake
Powell (Electric) Railroad and the
Navajo Generating Station all have
closed. This is a major victory for
clean air and the environment.
Look
south to
Black Mesa, Arizona, near
Navajo National Monument and you
will find the best-hidden strip mine
in the West. Utilizing the
Black Mesa and Lake Powell
(Electric) Railroad, the aptly
named Black Mesa provides relatively
dirty western coal to the Navajo
Generating Station, which overlooks
Lake Powell and the
Glen Canyon Dam.
Today, there is a growing consensus
that the dam itself was an
unnecessary environmental tragedy.
During the increasingly hot summers,
the
oversubscribed Colorado River
cannot supply enough water to spin a
sufficient number of turbines at
Glen Canyon Dam to meet peak
electric power demand. At such
times, additional coal-smoke haze
issues forth from the tall stacks of
the Navajo Generating Station.
These smoke signals send a message
of environmental degradation to each
of the Four Corners states. Fickle
winds roundabout the canyons of the
Colorado Plateau may contribute to
such far-flung phenomena as Uintah
Basin’s summer haze
Ask the current residents of
Giza, Egypt if they would support a
new round of pyramid building in their
once-lush valley. In ancient times,
over-development there initiated what we
now call the Sahara Desert. Yes,
current dwellers of the desert
southwest, it can happen here.
(Some)
Environmentalists like the swap, and
worked for its passage in Congress,
because it protects “remarkable places
along the Colorado River,” said Bill
Hedden, executive director of the
Grand Canyon Trust.
“The schoolkids come out ahead and the natural places come out ahead,” Hedden said. “It’s a great exchange.”
January 2012 Author's Note:
According to The Salt Lake Tribune
newspaper, "Utah is weary of waiting
for federal funds to complete a
heralded swap of recreational lands
near Moab in exchange for energy
swaths in the Uintah Basin, so state
school trust officials plan to start
paying appraisers themselves to seal
the deal."
“The schoolkids come out ahead and the natural places come out ahead,” Hedden said. “It’s a great exchange.”
I
wonder if the Native American school
kids living among natural gas wells
and breathing polluted air in the
Uintah Basin will be as sanguine.
Email
James McGillis
