The Emery County Public Lands Council met for a work meeting in December. Their purpose was to discuss the direction for the Emery County Public Lands Bill. Emery County’s proposal has been absorbed into Cong. Rob Bishop’s Public Lands Initiative. This PLI has been in the formative stages for the past two years.
Currently the language is being worked on and Cong. Bishop himself is going over this language sentence by sentence.
The council discussed whether or not they should have a plan B incase Cong. Bishop’s bill doesn’t go anywhere.
Ray Petersen, public lands director said, “As everyone is aware, we have been waiting since March, (for a draft) in the event that it doesn’t happen do we need to be ready to do something different?”
Bruce Wilson said also he wondered how far the Antiquities Act language should be pushed and how much is the Antiquities Act language a factor. Lastly, is the public lands council on the same page as the county commissioners and what they would like to see transpire?
Rod Player, vice chairman of the council said there are people in San Juan county that are unaware of what’s going on down there with the movement for a monument, he has talked to people down there and some of them are really upset with what the tribes are proposing to do and say it isn’t in accordance with the San Juan county plan. Player said he doesn’t want what’s going on in San Juan County to affect Emery County.
Petersen said the council is in support of Cong. Bishop’s public lands initiative if it works.
The council is supportive of the PLI, but concerned about a couple of issues including whether or not the Antiquities language would effect its passage.
The language concerning the Antiquities Act would make these lands included in the PLI ineligible for further designations under the Antiquities Act. This could lead to the PLI being shot down in the Senate, with less opposition in the House.
Council member Sherril Ward said he thinks the language should be in there or there would be little value in the PLI.
Randy Johnson, public lands consultant for the county said he hasn’t heard anything about that language being softened. It will be in there. There will need to be negotiations with the environmental coalition.
The commissioners were asked to weigh in on the discussion. Commissioner Ethan Migliori said there are parts of the Antiquities language that he likes.
Lands council chairman, Mistie Christiansen said the council wants the deal to be final. Either way with the language in there or not, there is no guarantee that the county won’t get a monument.
Johnson said the language of the bill isn’t out yet to look at, the news of Antiquities language being in the PLI just leaked out, when this happened it sent the environmental communities to their corners. Now everyone is in their corners without having seen anything. Once the language is out, the environmentalists still need to come back to the table, if the environmental community is split, it will be hard to get their support. When SUWA gets back to Washington DC, they are just a small part of the environmental community and don’t have the clout they do in Utah.
Cong. Bishop needs to find a good way to get that language in and still have the support of the environmental community.
Emery County officials and council members have been working to keep Emery County out of the cross hairs for a monument said Johnson. While the PLI process is ongoing, the council hopes this will be enough to ward off any designations in Emery County. But, if the process stalls, there’s every indication the environmental groups will be back asking for a monument.
Johnson said at this point there would be nothing for Emery County to gain if they pulled out of the process. If in the future, the PLI struggles or dies and becomes a target for a monument then Emery County would come back to their own Emery County bill. Some environmental groups were on board with what Emery County was doing before Emery County joined with Cong. Bishop’s PLI process. There are a lot of protective features in Emery County’s proposal.
A legislative committee in Utah has voted to recommend a law suit against the government so Utah can have control over its public lands. This recommendation has been sent to the Utah Attorney General’s Office. The council wondered if this would have any bearing on what Cong. Bishop’s hoping to accomplish.
Ryan Wilcox from Sen. Lee’s office said the threat from that side makes the PLI look even more attractive and reasonable, but a lawsuit hasn’t been filed just a recommendation and its up to the Attorney General now.
Kelsey Berg from Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s office said if the PLI doesn’t go anywhere, they have said all along they would sponsor an Emery County stand alone bill.
Petersen said the message Emery County has presented is the same, they want to be proactive with the public lands in the county. There have been many hurdles along the way, but the county is still moving forward.
Johnson said if Emery County has to move forward with its own bill in the future, then they would ask Sen. Lee to sponsor it from the Senate side.
It was mentioned the Goblin Valley Expansion project will move forward whether or not the PLI goes anywhere. The Price BLM office will take care of the NEPA process in the expansion area. The state BLM director is also supportive of that project.
The lands council will take a proactive approach at this time in contacting groups to let them know where the county stands in the PLI process.
Johnson said a good time to go back to Washington DC will be just after the language for the bill comes forward. “It will be good to touch bases with these different people, to get a read on how it’s received,” said Johnson.
Wilson said he appreciates the commissioners support of what the lands council is trying to do and the commissioners will ultimately make any decisions. “We are here to help you, if you have things you want us to do then let us know,” said Wilson.
Player said the council will keep moving forward and keep an eye on things.
Laren Huntsman, council member wondered if this would be a good time to step up visibility to get the county’s opinion out there.
Johnson said it’s a good idea to let all the state agencies know where we’re at. When the legislators toured the area, their eyes were opened. Beautiful views and vistas within a few miles of five major power plant units. The senators were overwhelmed by what we’ve done here, that they had no idea was taking place.
Petersen said he would prepare some good informational pieces to get out to the public and state officials and when the language for the bill comes out the council will comment on that too.
Berg said it’s important that a few loud voices in the Utah legislature, don’t speak for all of rural Utah. It was suggested Emery County officials meet with legislators to get their message out.
Johnson said it’s hard for inexperienced legislators to stand up to long time figures in the legislature, but the county’s job is to make sure all the legislators have good information.
Johnson invited any of the lands council members to come to Washington DC with them to share their experiences and expertise.
Wilson suggested the council contact key members of the Utah legislature and get them down here for tours. Johnson suggested the natural resources committee should be contacted before the session starts in January.
It’s also important members of Congress and the Senate are contacted to get on board too.
People in general need to be educated on the extraction industries and how beneficial they are to local communities. Huntsman said in Wyoming, the mineral lease money is used to buy laptops for the students and offers scholarships.
Johnson said as the legislative session begins it wouldn’t hurt for Pacifi-Corp to mention they are supportive of the PLI process.
The council will schedule another work meeting after the draft language for Cong. Bishop’s PLI comes out, hopefully soon after the start of 2016.
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