The Crazy: Wyoming Version

Wyoming Republicans are demanding the federal government turn over the vast amount of federal land it holds in the state–everything but Yellowstone but very much including Grand Teton National Park–so it can develop it along its own lines:

Claiming a violation of the Constitution, state senators in Wyoming have filed a resolution “demanding” that the federal government turn over all public lands and mineral rights within their borders by October 1, excluding Yellowstone National Park. The 30 million acres they’re demanding include Grand Teton National Park, Devil’s Tower National Monument, several national forests, and BLM land. The state’s own constitution would then force those lands to be sold.

The joint resolution is the latest move in an all out assault on America’s unique public lands system. Already this year, the House of Representatives adopted a rule that will enable it to sell public lands without consideration of their value, the Ways and Means committee proposed selling public lands as a way to offset tax cuts for billionaires, legislation was introduced to Congress proposing the elimination of a President’s ability to create national monuments, and the Supreme Court decided not to take up a poorly conceived lawsuit from the state of Utah, thereby avoiding a ruling which may have added further precedent for protection of public lands.

That Utah lawsuit is relevant here. It attempted to argue that areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management are somehow “unappropriated,” and therefore the Constitution dictates they be sold off to Mike Lee’s campaign donors. And while the court didn’t give any reason why it declined to hear the case, it seems logical to conclude that argument simply wasn’t strong enough to override two century’s worth of legal rulings confirming the constitutionality of Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the actual Constitution, which states:

“The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.”

Wyoming (along with 13 other states) actually signed onto that lawsuit with Utah. Ambition by politicians there to take over federally managed land is nothing new, nor are harebrained, half-assed attempts to realize that.

Which brings us to the joint resolution filed by the Wyoming Senate’s Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources committee on Thursday. Its central arguments seem to be that A) if you stop reading that section of the Constitution after the word “dispose,” then you might come to the conclusion that it’s telling Congress to sell public lands. And B) eastern States don’t have as much public land as Wyoming, and that’s just not fair.

These days, who knows if it will really happen. But what we can say is that the West has become more internally divided than any region in the country. Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, and New Mexico are solidly blue states, with Nevada and Arizona purple. But Republicans in all these states are totally insane, which is why they can’t win in Oregon and Washington at least. A moderate might, but a moderate would never be nominated. Meanwhile, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and now Montana sprint ever farther right, to the point where the days of Frank Moss, Cecil Andrus, Dave Freudenthal, and Jon Tester seem more and more impossible. And these days, I really couldn’t tell you what the federal government will do here. However, I think it’s safe to say that the low info voter concerned about inflation did not vote for Trump in order to see the national parks defiled by drilling. But who knows if they would really care.