Utah Republicans upset over designation for federal land
9/18/96
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Utah Republicans upset over designation for federal land
September 18, 1996
From San Francisco Bureau Chief Greg Lefevre
SOUTHERN UTAH (CNN) -- President Clinton on Wednesday was scheduled
to declare vast stretches of southern Utah off limits to mining by
declaring the Escalante Canyons region a national monument.
But the announcement stunned many of Utah's political leaders -- who
say they were not consulted until five days earlier. Some of them say
Clinton's action will not sit well with their constituents.
"In fact," said Utah Sen. Orin Hatch, "there's going to be hell to
pay."
The stretches of scenic bluffs and mesas of the Escalante Canyons are
both a treasure to conservationists and economic security to a Dutch
mining company that owns a lease on the vast coal reserves below the
surface.
"It's a globally important archeological resource," said Ted Stewart
of Utah's Department of Natural Resources. "It s a kind of wealth
that you can't dig up out of the earth."
But Utah's legislators tried to stop Clinton's declaration, which
would lock up coal reserves worth upwards of $1 trillion.
"Let's coolly go through it and see if we can come up with something
that is a win-win for us instead of this shove something down our
throats type of thing," said Rep. James Hansen, a Republican..
Utah's governor said that President Clinton didn't call him either.
"We want to protect the land," said Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt.
"(But) the fact that it happens on the eve of an election cannot be
ignored obviously."
The land in question sits amid the vast vistas of Bryce Canyon
National Park and Zion National Park, upstream from the Grand Canyon
along tributaries of the Colorado River.
Andalex Resources holds leases with the federal government to mind
coal there. The White House has not told Andalex what to expect.
"We would hope that the federal government would honor its leases,"
the company told CNN.
The Pacificorp Power Company also has a lease there, but would swap
it for federal land and elsewhere.
Conservationists argue that the land's untouched beauty is its
greatest resource, attracting $3 billion in tourism every year.
"It's in an area where coal companies have come and gone," said Ken
Rait of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Democratic Congressional candidate Ross Anderson called Clinton's
action the type of "courageous and visionary move that later
generations will be very grateful for."
If he's victorious in November, Anderson and his fellow Congress
members will get to figure out how to pay for the new park, as well
as other financially strapped areas in the federal system.