Legislature: No More National Monuments

03.08.2010 by KCPW

(KCPW News) The president shouldn’t designate any national monuments in Utah, and local and state governments should have input over the management of federal public lands.  That was the message included in a resolution passed today in the Utah House of Representatives. Sponsor Representative Mike Noel said designating new national monuments would mean less oil and gas development, and therefore less money for education.

“Wouldn’t it be great that we could take some of the lands in the state of Utah that were designated as multiple-use lands under the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976 that was promised to the school children of Utah?” Noel said.  “Just this Tavaputs oil field alone, if developed, could bring in $150 million a year for the next 20 years.”

Noel’s resolution is a reaction to a leaked Interior Department memo indicating the Obama Administration is considering the Cedar Mesa and San Rafael Swell areas for monument designation. HCR 17 says this would leave Utah’s fate to the “mere stroke of an unchecked presidential pen.”

But House Minority Leader David Litvack said the leaked memo from the federal government was simply a draft, and doesn’t require such a harsh response.

“I supported the original intent to raise concerns about Cedar Mesa and San Rafael Swell,” said Litvack.  “To me, the rhetoric, the inflammatory nature of some of the words contained within the resolution itself, goes too far.”

The resolution passed the House with the support of all Republicans and half of Democrats in a 63-to-11 vote.  An identical resolution also passed in the Senate.