"5% of SQUAT!"

by Michael Orton
Licensed through ImageProviders

SALT LAKE CITY –

On the Utah Senate floor just before that body adjourned for lunch, Senator Stephen Urquhart (R-29, Washington County) rose in support of Senator Ralph Okerland (R-24 central Utah), House Representative Mike Noel (R-73, Kane County) and their SB221. Urquhart passionately denounced the federal government and its recent decision to "re-inventory" public lands throughout the western U.S. using Secretarial Order 3310. Without much reference or amplification, Senator Urquhart boldly asserted that the constitution did not give Utah acreage to the federal government for administration, because the federal government "breeched its [transfer] agreement in 1976." At critical issue here, and likely the reason why the second substitute bill was fast-tracked on suspension of the rules (28Y, 0N), is the participation of resource revenue sharing with the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, SITLA. Complete bi-partisanship on this matter is deeply rooted in the democratic minority's overwhelming support of the state's school system and its funding in an era of austerity.

In the widely held anticipation of federal designation of Utah's wild lands as wilderness, "the federal government has stolen what is rightfully ours," declared Utah Sen. Urquhart, "and if they continue, we will receive five percent of SQUAT." He went on to vigorously complain that "these lands are not the little playthings of theirs. They are STEALING from [Utah's] public education system." Though the secretarial order sets up a public process, the fear that the Department of the Interior will designate as "wild lands" some of Utah's 20 million BLM acres has fueled empassioned debate and significant work on SB221. The bill attempts to establish and codify bottom-up management plan methodology through the cooperation of counties and state agencies like the Utah Department of Natural Resources and now the newly-formed Utah Department of Energy Development.

A quick look at program funding reports from Utah's School Land Trust indicates that through the time of the secretarial order issued by Interior Secretary and Colorado native Ken Salazar, Utah schools had enjoyed increased revenues from this source with trending established before the national election in 2008. Even past that time, schools in Utah received considerably more funds than in earlier years. The conservationists say this lends some credence to the charge that energy company profits fueled a "wholesale auction of extraction leases on public lands" and attempts to promote coal-fired power plant applications in the final months of the Bush administration.