Ely, Nevada coal-fired power plant plan formally withdrawn

It’s good to see the sucker finally dead!

Ely coal-fired power plant plan withdrawn. AP  in the Reno Gazette Journal.

Federal ‘land grab’ myth endures in Utah

The western states never owned the U.S. public lands (federal lands) inside their boundaries-

One of the the oldest myths perpetrated in rural areas of the public land states is that the national forests, parks, and BLM lands somehow at some time belonged to the state, and these lands were somehow wrested into federal ownership.

The function of the myth is mostly to provide a rationale for ignoring the law and the wishes of people from outside the area. It is actively perpetrated by development and livestock interests who don’t like federal decisions (they are silent about all this when they do like federal decisions).

When I taught the course “Public Land Politics,” I always spent about two weeks on the origin and history of the public lands, so that those who had absorbed this myth would have the history and laws to see what actually did and did not transpire.

This is the kind of op ed that needs to be written several times a year in every newspaper in the West. Federal ‘land grab’ myth endures in Utah. By  Gale Dick. Save Our Canyons. Salt Lake Tribune.