Real Estate & Property Law

Demagoguery At Its Best

By Alan Ackerman

AP

The Utah House has approved a bill that would allow the state to take federally owned land through the use of eminent domain.

Lawmakers approved the legislation 57-13 on Thursday. Republican Rep. Chris Herrod, the bill's sponsor, says the federal government violated its contract with Utah when it gained statehood by not selling the lands.

Herrod hopes to use eminent domain to take lands at the monument that have large coal reserves. Herrod says development of the reserves could help fund the state's schools.
    
The Utah Legislature simply proclaims sovereignty over federal owned land in its State. The implication of Utah's act is that somehow it retained powers when the feds took over and accepted Utah as a member of the union.
 
One of these possessory rights maintained by Utah was not to control its own land.  The land was probably transferred to the federal government and there it sits.  

This would not be too much of a problem in most states, but Utah has the fortune of large oil and gas resources in the area owned by the federal government.

Authorizing itself the opportunity to condemn the federal government raises two questions.  First, where the devil did it get its solitude to condemn the federal land?  Second, does Utah really believe the highest and best use of the property does not include the natural resources that it is acquiring?  If someone else is acquiring in an arms-length transaction, would the owner of this luscious land not expect to be paid for all of its natural resources?  The answer is evident.  
    
Good luck with the demagoguery, Utah Legislators!

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on March 01, 2010 (boomark / email).