Wilderness and energy: Senate approves Utah land swap measure

Washington » The Senate quickly approved a Utah land swap bill Wednesday evening that should protect valuable acres of wilderness while also giving energy companies access to new areas rich in oil and natural gas.

The vote ends a more than four-year effort by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to allow the federal government and Utah's school trust lands to exchange more than 40,000 acres.

"When crafting this bill, we made sure that it would not only invest in our children's education, but also protect some of the areas surrounding our most treasured lands in Utah," said Bennett, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The committee

The legislation now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

"This is a great day for everyone in Utah who cares about stewardship of our public lands and the benefits to everyone who values them, when land management makes sense," Matheson said.

The effort should result in more revenue for Utah schools. The state's School Institutional Trust Lands Administration, known as SITLA, would give the federal government chunks of scenic land with wilderness qualities in exchange for federal land that has little environmental quality but may hold vast amounts of energy deposits.

SITLA would then issue mining leases to energy companies with the resulting revenue supporting public schools. In all, SITLA controls 3.5 million acres in the state.

The bill also seeks to simplify what many have called the checkerboard pattern of land ownership in counties such as Grand, Uintah and San Juan. Parcels of state trust lands are surrounded by federal land and vice versa, creating a situation that has frustrated county leaders, environmental groups and energy companies. They all came together to support the legislation.