San Rafael National Monument

[Troy DeMill]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9734098

Cedar Mesa National Monument.

scary. Could it be a Grand Staircase all over again?

[RockRacer]

Thank goodness for Bennett.

[sirzepp]

Just heard this on the radio this morning. Made me a little sick.

[BLACKGOLD]

I have mixed feelings on this topic. On one hand...sure...a lot of people get upset, its can be very negative, it potentially limits access, impact on local communities & jobs, etc, etc. On the other hand...sometimes I get the feeling that the only reason they wanna fight this is because private interests have intentions to come in and just drop oil wells everywhere and rape the crap out of the public land...and they can't do that if its a Federal Monument. I'm not 100% sure where I stand...and admit to not being as educated as I'd like to be about it. Although...I am 100% sure I don't trust a single thing any politician in this country says about anything.

[Troy DeMill]

I think this would be a fair place for discussion on this issue, thanks Jeremy for being honest and thoughtful about it. I also would like to have some check on the ability of oil companies to move in start drilling where ever they find oil or gas regardless of the environment, I just object to using the national monument designation as the proper way to go about this. This isn't some vacant abandoned field that nobody owns. What gives the Federal Government the right to take a parcel of ground in Utah and dictate what can and can't be done there. The Federal government already has an incredibly disproportionately large percentage of Utah land. Let's let Utah manage this property. Utah should be more intune with the wishes of the people living near and using this land than the Federal Government.

That's what I feel about it.

[ttaylor]

I think the feds should be picking up State parks accross the country that states are planning on abandoning in the next few years because they can't aford them. Put money and time into taking care of what you already have. Like Troy said, there needs to be another way of protecting land from large poluting developers without taking away the publics rights to use the land. Politics is getting stupid crazy.

I work with a guy that was an engineer at the Bureau of Mines here in Utah. They were tasked with researching the ultra low sulfer coal deposits located in what is now the Grand Staircase National Monument. The deposits there were found to be one of the largest and one of the only ones in the United States that met the classification. Literally one morning guys in suits showed up and physically removed all the employees from the office and hauled all the documentation away. A short time latter we got the new National Monument and all that coal is now untouchable. Maybe he's just bitter since everyone all of the sudden lost thier jobs with no explanation. It's a much better story when he tells it.

I've spent a lot of time in the swell over the years and have no interest and see no need for it to be turned into a national park. We have enough, thankyou. I guess i need to get my kids down there more this year before they aren't allowed or have to pay an insane amount of money to see any of it again.

[ttora4runner]

I think the feds should be picking up State parks accross the country that states are planning on abandoning in the next few years because they can't aford them. Put money and time into taking care of what you already have. Like Troy said, there needs to be another way of protecting land from large poluting developers without taking away the publics rights to use the land. Politics is getting stupid crazy.

I'm in agreement with that.

We need to learn to take care of what we have first before new areas start getting desingated. Start with the State Parks like you said and get those on the right track first but also try to find other solutions to help protect the land before locking it up (which should be a very last resort).

[BLACKGOLD]

I completely agree with retaining public access, while trying to protect the land.

As for the coal in Escalante...I probably won't make a lot of friends with my opinion but...GOOD. Considering the day and age we live in, the technology that permeates our culture...there is simply no reason we should still be punching holes in the earth and dumping crap into the sky by burning coal. JMO.

This particular legislation is not the answer I think, I agree that it needs to be done on a local level. But it seems like a lot of people have the idea that just because this is Utah and we have such a beautiful state that we are immune to pollution & problems of this nature...and that is very naive.