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The federal government owns a ton of land in the west when compared to the rest of the United States. The federal government owns 64.9% of Utah, but owns 0.3% o
by pg_bot 6y ago
The federal government owns a ton of land in the west when compared to the rest of the United States. The federal government owns 64.9% of Utah, but owns 0.3% of New York, 4.4% of South Carolina, and 13.2% of Florida.[0] We should auction off more land in the west, instead of leasing it.
[0] https://ballotpedia.org/Federal_land_ownership_by_state https://ballotpedia.org/Federal_land_ownership_by_state
- Miner49er 6y agoI'm not sure why that's wanted? If the goal is to equalize the amount of land owned by the federal government in each state, why not do the opposite and have the government gain control of more land in the east?
- driverdan 6y agoWho said that was the goal? That doesn't make any sense. It would cost billions to buy up land on the east coast and only inflate the value of the remaining land. Outside of monuments and parks most of the land the gov owns in western states is undesirable. You can already buy very cheap land in the middle of nowhere UT, NM, NV, and AZ. The market for off grid desert land with no water is small.
- jeffbee 6y agoPretty hard. The feds can’t just gain property. They have it in the west by having reserved it in the first place. That is, federal land in the west never belonged to the state. Now what we should have done over the last twenty years is just buy Canada. It works have only cost a few trillion dollars (non-urban areas only) and would have radically expanded federal holdings.
- arrosenberg 6y agoGiven the challenges we face with climate change, it should be going the other way. The government should be buying more land back east and slowing down on leasing. We need to give more land back to nature, and the Fed has the resources and longevity to oversee that type of project.
- ajmurmann 6y agoNot only climate change but even just restoring wildlife habitats. I'd love to see an effort to minimize land used or modified by humans.
- lend000 6y agoGovernment leased land tends to contribute far more to climate change. Landowners tend to be better stewards of their property than renters or bureaucrats. Examples include cattle overgrazing on BLM land, fracking on leased land, military activities (the worst offender of them all) and really any mineral/oil/gas/water exploitation in which the user has no incentive to keep the land in good quality (e.g. maintaining a resale value). It's counterintuitive, but unless you make it all a National Park, pretty much every other government land use will cause more harm than privatization.
- icedistilled 6y agoThis is a terrible idea. Why is making public land into private land a benefit to the nation when it can be used and enjoyed by the entire public, preserve wildlife, and be sustainably managed? Why would auctioning it off be good, getting far below it's worth for a single one time gain, and then stopping all of us from benefiting from recreational opportunities and further degrading the small amounts of relatively pristine land.
- perl4ever 6y agoNevada is 2/3 federal land as well, I think, but a lot of it is radioactive...