WYOMING  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE  RESOLUTION     IN  SUPPORT  OF  THE  TRANSFER  OF  PUBLIC  LANDS  TO  THE  STATES       Whereas,  The  federal  government  promised  all  newly  created  states  –  in  their  statehood  enabling   contracts  –  that  it  would  transfer  title  to  the  public  lands;     Whereas,  This  promise  to  transfer  title  to  the  public  lands  is  the  same  for  all  states  east  and  west  of   Colorado;     Whereas,  The  federal  government  honored  this  promise  with  Hawaii  and  all  states  east  of  Colorado   and  today  controls  on  average  less  than  5%  of  the  lands  in  those  states;     Whereas,  The  federal  government  has  failed  to  honor  this  same  promise  with  MT,  WY,  CO,  NM,  AZ,   UT,  ID,  NV,  WA,  OR,  CA  and  AK  and  today  still  controls  more  than  50%  of  all  lands  in  these  states   (more  than  80%  of  the  state  of  Nevada);     Whereas,  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  declared  these  enabling  act  contracts  to  be   “solemn  compacts”  with  enforceable  rights  and  obligations  on  both  sides;     Whereas,  In  1976  the  United  States  Congress  ended  its  nearly  two  hundred  year  public  policy  of   beneficially  transferring  ownership  of  public  lands  by  passing  the  Federal  Land  Policy  Management   Act  (FLPMA);     Whereas,  Public  lands  previously  held  in  trust  for  the  individual  states  were  managed  for  their   resource  value  prior  to  the  passage  of  FLPMA;     Whereas,  After  the  passage  of  FLPMA  our  public  lands  are  instead  being  managed  perpetually  for   their  conservation  value;     Whereas,  Local  state  and  national  economies  are  all  being  adversely  impacted  by  the  loss  of  use  of   the  natural  resources  thus  being  managed;     Whereas,  Payment  in  Lieu  of  Taxes  (PILT),  Secure  Rural  Schools  (SRS),  and  other  public  offsets  are   financially  inadequate,  have  been  unreliably  funded  and  do  not  adequately  compensate  the  States   for  the  breach  of  their  Enabling  Acts;     Whereas,  The  United  States  Supreme  Court  case  Hawaii  v.  Office  of  Hawaiian  Affairs,  speaks  to  the   proposition  that  the  Congress  cannot  by  subsequent,  unilateral  action  alter  or  diminish  the  rights   conferred  upon  a  state  in  consequence  of  its  admission  to  the  Union;       Whereas,  Under  the  guise  of  “sequestration”  to  cut  federal  expenses,  the  federal  government  is   cutting  western  states’  revenues  in  the  form  of  PILT,  SRS  and  FML  (Federal  Mineral  Lease)   cutbacks;       Whereas,  States  east  of  Colorado  pay  billions  each  year  to  subsidize  western  states  to  not  use  their   lands  and  resources  to  educate  their  own  children  and  care  for  their  own  communities;     Whereas,  Western  states  already  manage  millions  of  acres  of  state  lands  generating  more  revenue   with  less  expense  and  less  environmental  damage  in  general  than  federally  managed  public  lands;       Whereas,  The  National  Association  of  Forest  Service  Retirees  recently  issued  a  paper  describing  the   unsustainability  of  current  federal  forest  management  practices;     Whereas,  The  resulting  increase  in  catastrophic  wildfires  is  needlessly  killing  millions  of  animals   and  destroying  habitat  and  watershed  for  decades;       Whereas,  Western  states  are  incurring  inordinate  expenses  to  suppress  forest  fires  related  to  failed   federal  forest  policies;       Whereas,  The  federal  government  discourages  capital  investment  and  job  creation  by  taking  10   times  longer  to  approve  energy  development  permits  than  states  where  the  federal  government   honored  the  promise  to  transfer  title  to  the  public  lands;       Whereas,  The  Institute  for  Energy  Research  discovered  in  2013  that  there  is  more  than  $150  trillion   in  mineral  value  locked  up  in  federally  controlled  lands;     Whereas,  Opening  8%  of  the  coastal  plain  of  ANWR  in  Alaska  would  provide  billions  of  dollars  to  the   Federal  treasury,  create  more  than  500,000  jobs  nationwide  and  add  between  9-­‐16  billion  barrels  of  oil   to  our  nation’s  supply;     Whereas,  In  2012  the  United  States  Government  Accountability  Office  testified  to  Congress  that   there  is  more  recoverable  oil  in  UT,  CO,  and  WY  than  the  rest  of  the  world  combined  locked  up  in   federally  controlled  lands;  and   Whereas  legal  analyses  by  the  Sutherland  Institute  and  The  Federalist  Society  conclude  that  the   intent  of  the  parties,  the  text,  and  the  context  of  the  statehood  enabling  acts,  obligate  the  federal   government  to  dispose  of  public  lands;  now  therefore  be  it   Resolved,  That  the  Wyoming  Republican  Party  Central  Committee  calls  upon  the  federal   government  to  honor  to  all  willing  western  states  the  same  statehood  promise  to  transfer  title  to   the  public  lands  that  it  honored  with  all  states  east  of  Colorado;  and     Resolved,  That  the  Wyoming  Republican  Party  Central  Committee  calls  upon  all  national  and  state   leaders  and  representatives  to  exert  their  utmost  power  and  influence  to  urge  the  imminent   transfer  of  public  lands  to  all  willing  western  states  for  the  benefit  of  these  western  states  and  for   the  nation  as  a  whole.     Sponsor:     Pat  Moore,  State  Committeeman,  Fremont  County   February  8,  2014     “Where  socialized  ownership  of  land  is  concerned,  only  the  USSR  and  China  can  claim  company   with  the  United  States.”    John  Kenneth  Galbraith   http://americanlandscouncil.org/index.html http://sutherlandinstitute.org/blog/utahs-transfer-of-public-lands-act-a-legal-case-for-localizing-landownership/ http://www.fed-soc.org/doclib/20130114_KochanUtahPublicLandsWP.pdf