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Show Moss Says Government Ores Utah Land .iNhlih;tiii, ). c... The lo.ul mi' w iinoss before be-fore tlio Subcommittee oi) Minerals, Materials aiul Kuels net Monday will tu I'tah Senator Frank K. U'edl Moss who is scheduled (o "sot the record re-cord straight on I't.ih's gil shale rights." The Senator is expected expect-ed to put I'tah's ease in strong terms for 167,000 acres of federal land for which applications have I'een filed since lf ;,nd ' There appears to be much misunderstanding over these parcels of land owed the Slate by the Federal Fe-deral Government, " said Moss. "Some people have Jhe mistaken idea that I'tah is suddenly trying lo put something over on the rest of the nation because be-cause oil shale has'be- come a hot topic. "We were trying to get the Federal Coverment to honor its commitment to the State under an 1894 law years before the current cur-rent complainers even Knew there was such a thing as oil shale," said Moss. The law Moss referred to requires the Federal Government to transfer to Utah four sections out of every township within the state border "for support of the public schools." In cases where military reservation, Indian reservations and other restricted lands prevented the-' government govern-ment from transfer, the State was to select alternate al-ternate land. "Utah has been in compliance com-pliance with all the re- quircments for those applications ap-plications for years," said Moss. "The problem has been constant foot-dragging foot-dragging by the Federal Government in meeting its obligations." Moss said he also resents re-sents implications by some environmentalists that the State of Utah is somehow insensitive to protection of its own environment. en-vironment. The underlying underly-ing charge by some seems to be that if the land is turned over the state it will be immediately immedi-ately given to industry and destroyed," said Moss. "That is poppycock poppy-cock and an insult to Utah. It seems obvious that Utahns will be at least as concerned about their own state as Federal officials of-ficials in Washington." |