Show Congressional delegation upset with Post story A A. A Washington Post Poet story which implied the State of ol Utah Is stealthily claiming acres of ol oil shale lands it has no right to made most mOlt of 01 the states state's congressional delegation hopping mad SENATOR FRANK E E. E Moss MOIl D D Utah Utah who had been asked by bythe bythe bythe the Post Past for the states state's side aide of the story was wal Indignant when the paper used none of 01 the material h he e had furnished Senator Wallace F F. F Bennett R Utah R-Utah Utah and Representative Gunn McKay Utah D-Utah were also displeased with the Post story which was based on charges made by a Colorado environmental group roUP REPRESENTATIVE Charles A. A Vanik Ohio D Ohio charged recently the transfer could r result in huge hug profits profits' to oil companies The results could bea windfall for the giant oil c companies Vanik said in a aHouse aHouse a aHouse House speech I lam Iam am afraid that this land transfer by the Interior co could Jd be the first in what we we tobe a long series of 01 abuses abuses' and misuses of our publicly owned western slope oil shale lands Vanik said He said consideration should be given to the creation of a TVA type TVA-type government corporation to develop the oil shale resource rather than leasing it to private companies THE LAND n was was' ceded to the state when it entered the union in 1896 just as is' is public lands were granted to all of 01 the I states stel from Irom Revolutionary days Clays through Alaska's admission as as the state Many any states have gotten great natural riches far lar more valuable than Utah's which h were limited to to scattered red sections set aside to help pay for education education in the state Alaska got large tr tracts of ol North Slope oil lands already known tobe tobe to tobe be be immensely valuable le Since there were were few surveyed areas areas in Utah 79 19 years ago the states state's lands could not immediately be transferred and in the interim many sections have been taken by the U. U S S. S for a variety of I purposes s that range from parks and n national monuments through reclamation projects ts' ts to Q hom homesteads The in income o any has any has gone to the federal government SECTIONS OF other lands in lieu of ol the flie original sections s has been permitted for fel many years and a 1885 act allowed the states to be begin in to choose substitute sections without having to prove that they were equal In value to those thole of Its lands taken by the federal government The Colorado group roup recently charged that Utah was both taking more valuable lands and planning to go ahead on its own with oil shale development Environmentalists oppose such development and still hope to beable be beable beable able to clock it on the federal level so they are particularly Incensed that the state might be beIn bein bein in a position to develop shale lands itself Itsel SENATOR MOSS said he Intends to set the record straight when he appears before belore the Senate mining subcommittee |