OCR Text |
Show Oil shale land denial stresses Sagebrush Rebellion value ii A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the federal government doesn't have to give the state of Utah mineral-rich lands in exchange for school lands, announced an-nounced last week, highlights the need for the Sagebrush Rebillion's success, according to a Utah farm leader. Frank O. Nishiguchi, president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, said today to-day that state ownership of federal land would not only speed up the development develop-ment of resources on the land in question ques-tion ; it would also give the state the full income from such lands instead of only a portion of the bonus and mineral lease dollars. "In the short run, this will cost Utahns perhaps $5 to $7 million a year," the farm leader pointed out. "But in the long run, the costs may be hundreds of millions of dollars. And this 'loss' is from the U.S. government hanging onto land that should not even belong to them." Nishiguchi referred to the fact that Utah was granted the right, in 1896, to choose land equivalent to that taken then and later by the federal govern ment for national parks, monuments : and forests. In 1965, Utah filed claim on 157,000 acres, all located in Uintah :x County, where oil shale has since been " bid on for development by oil com- panies. In 1974, the state filed action in federal district court to assert its claim to the land; that court upheld Utah's ti- - tie claim in 1976. In 1978, a federal ap- f peals court again affirmed Utah's right ;. to the land. r Monday, May 19, the U.S. Supreme Court said the federal government could give the state less valuable land if it wished. : ; If the Supreme Court decision holds up in the face of Utah's attempt to reverse it, the loss to Utah's educa- r tional fund will be about $5 million next year alone. But lease and bonus income r is only starting to build up. T Nishiguchi pointed out that Bureau of Land Management land to which Utah : has laid claim under separate action in a 1980 state law should not have been held by the federal government all . these years. It violated a contract with the state, he claimed. |