Show oi io 10 r. r w M Utah WinS favorable ruling l to O in lieu HO oil shale lands Utah apparently won title to acres of valuable federal oil shale land Tuesday in US U.S. District Court when Chief Judge Willis W Ritter ruled Ritter-ruled ruled in favor of the states state's claims to the the theland land The area in the southeastern section of Utah includes two federal oil shale lease tr tracts which were leased to developers developers' In April 1974 for foe a apr pr prototype oil shale project The developers bid a a just for the right to lease the tracts Tills THIS AMOUNT J does not include royalty t to be paid on op on oil pU extracted from from the tracts each about acres in 10 size or rental for the land If the state stat hard had not won its its' court battle Utah would have been entitled to 37 and a half percent of all aU income from bids royalties and rental Now it may get everything The bid money was paid into inton an an n escrow account which was invested in term short interest- interest bearing US U.S. Treasury sury bonds at Ritters Ritter's order two years ago Not all of the b bid d money has been paid yet under a complicated com corn contract the developers developers' have with the US U.S. Bureau of Land Management official Joseph Jewkes said that tha t as of March 1 the escrow account had accumulated accumulated accumulated ac ac- ac- ac cumulated Of this amount mount interest made up 4 On June 1 the developers are to make another payment Utah has been due over acres cres of federal land landever ever since it became a state in 1896 Then the government aw awarded the state four sections of 1 land d from every township to support the states state's schools But some of this land was in military reservations Indian property etc and could not be conveyed So the state had the right to select land it wanted to replace it as long as the land w was not withdrawn for parks r Y F p w wr r 1 BICENTENNIAL signs designating Vernal a 0 Bl Bicentennial city were er erected ted by state stalo rood road crews rowl lat last week The Th signs were wore placed at both entrances of o Highway U 40 to Vernal Vernol Highway SR 44 Vernal Avenue to the North and on the Maeser road road entrance to Vernal etc IN 1968 UTAH said it ft was selecting acres acres of prime federal oil shale land as part of or orits its overdue allotment 1 The Interior Department took the stance that Utah waS was not entitled to an acre by re selection of the in lieu lands because of a supposed difference difference dif dU ference ferenc in value between the oil shale land land and and the land Utah originally lost The position was based on an opinion issued more than a decade ago by then then then- Atty Gen Robert F F. Kennedy After U Utah's hs h's suit was filed the opened bids on the two tracts A consortium of Phillips Petroleum Co and Sun Oil Co bid for the first tract l highest bid when all were opened March On April 9 9 1974 bids were opened oi on the he second tract with the White Whit River Shale a consortium of three companies com com- p offering nies offering for rights to develop that tract White River was made up of Petroleum Co Sun Oil Co and Phillips Petroleum Co TilE THE BIDS alone not counting counting coun coun- ting interest total all of which presumably will go goto goto goto to the state There is at least 5 million more in interest and there are another acres wl which ch the state may someday put PIt up for bid It may be decades before oil shale is developed economically But most analysts believe it eventually I will be When it does and if the appeals court upholds Utah's claims the state may have a fantastic bonanza |