Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, Resource Management Plan Contraints, and Land Exchanges: Cross-Jurisdictional Management and Impacts on unconventional Fuel Development in Utah's Uinta Basin

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School or College S. J. Quinney College of Law
Creator Keiter, Robert; Ruple, John; Holt, Rebecca; Tanana, Heather
Title Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, Resource Management Plan Contraints, and Land Exchanges: Cross-Jurisdictional Management and Impacts on unconventional Fuel Development in Utah's Uinta Basin
Date 2012-03
Description Abstract: Utah is home to oil shale resources containing roughly 1.3 trillion barrels of oil equivalent and our nations richest oil sands resources. If economically feasible and environmentally responsible means of tapping these resources can be developed, these resources could provide a safe and stable domestic energy source for decades to come. In Utah, oil shale and oil sands resources underlay a patchwork of federal, state, private, and tribal lands that are subject to different regulatory schemes and conflicting management objectives. Evaluating the development potential of Utahs oil shale and oil sands resources requires an understanding of jurisdictional issues and the challenges they present to deployment and efficient utilization of emerging technologies. The jurisdictional patchwork and divergent management requirements inhibit efficient, economic, and environmentally sustainable development. This report examines these barriers to resource development, methods of obtaining access to landlocked resources, and options for consolidating resource ownership. This report also examines recent legislative efforts to wrest control of western public lands from the federal government. If successful, these efforts could dramatically reshape resource control and access, though these efforts appear to fall far short of their stated goals. The unintended consequences of adversarial approaches to obtaining resource access may outweigh their benefits, hardening positions and increasing tensions to the detriment of overall coordination between resource managers. Federal land exchanges represent a more efficient and mutually beneficial means of consolidating management control and improving management efficiency. Independent of exchange proposals, resource managers must improve coordination, moving beyond mere consultation with neighboring landowners and sister agencies to coordinating actions with them.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject LCSH Energy development ; Jurisdiction ; Land and resource management
Language eng
Relation is Version of Faculty Publications; Institutional Repository
Rights Management S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Spatial Coverage Uintah Basin (Utah and Colo.)
Format Medium application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6dn7dt5
Setname ir_uspace
ID 709966
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6dn7dt5
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