Free Republic

Reining in federal land ownership--a drop in the bucket When the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was designated under President Clinton’s purview in 1996, it created real hardship for regional ranchers. New management rules locked up more than one and a half million acres, discontinuing grazing leases that were imperative to sustain cattle growers who’d been using the land responsibly for more than a century. Part of the impetus for closing off natural resource development at the time was to halt access to one of the best sources of low sulfur coal, including from tribal populations, putting a stranglehold on arid...

For anyone who's played the game "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral," it might seem obvious that the Marcellus shale isn't alive and doesn't grow -- it's a rock layer in the ground, so it's a mineral. In the Pennsylvania courts, the answer is not so clear. A Susquehanna County Common Pleas court is headed for a hearing to determine whether the gas-rich Marcellus shale is a mineral, and therefore, included in mineral rights. The state Superior Court ruled this month that case law is unclear, leaving big questions over who legitimately controls drilling rights and the valuable natural gas in the mile-deep...

In 1991, at a cost of $70 million, a group of miners and mining entities known collectively as Seven Up Pete Venture acquired mineral rights on land, near Lincoln, Montana, believed to contain over four million ounces of gold and ten million ounces of silver capable of being recovered by open-pit mining and cyanide heap leaching. During the mid-1990s, Seven Up Pete negotiated with Montana for permits to begin mining operations; however, in November 1998, Montana voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative banning recovery of gold and silver using cyanide heap leaching. Although miners and economic development advocates desired to...

Thanks to a massive discovery of natural gas beneath this city -- and relatively new technology that has made extraction economically feasible -- hundreds already are cashing royalty checks and scanning production figures, anticipating more. Eventually, thousands are likely to cash in on the opportunity created by the Barnett shale field. Fort Worth has made municipal acreage available for drilling, while enacting policies to make sure the environmental quality in the country's fifth fastest-growing city is maintained. Since last October, the city has leased out five tracts -- under parks, airports and other city-owned property -- and has received $2.7...

LANDER -- Wind River Indian Reservation tribes could realize about $6.5 million in federal payments after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider the government's appeal of a lower-court ruling in favor of the tribes. Earlier this month, the Bush administration argued the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes waited too long to sue the Interior Department over federal management of minerals on the reservation dating back nearly 60 years. Without comment, justices let stand the lower-court ruling that allowed most of the claims by the Wyoming tribes. The tribes allege the federal government mismanaged oil, gas,...

I am in favor of space access: the sooner the better, the more the better, and, especially, the cheaper the better. Here are some policy options that I have ranked according to the benefit/cost ratio. 1. Encourage other nations to sell their launches at marginal cost instead of just for “government launches” as espoused in the U.S. Space Transportation Policy (STP). Russia has surplus ICBMs. We should be grateful they are beating their swords into plowshares. We should encourage them to harvest their surplus equipment for cash to worthy Western buyers who want access to space so that they do...

-- For decades, Lynn Godwin split his time between two jobs: one at a welding plant and the other on his land, where he baled hay, tended cows and nursed 50 acres. "He used to pass by and say, `I own that.' And we'd say, `Yeah, you do,' " said his 70-year-old wife, Marvin, who was named after her father. Now she can't be sure. In September, Marvin Godwin opened a certified letter telling her that the East Texas land might not belong to her husband; it might belong to the state. The Godwins are among the 1,800 land and...

Court: Aborigines No Mineral Rights Thu Aug 8, 5:00 AM ET By PETER O'CONNOR, Associated Press Writer CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia's highest court ruled Thursday that Aborigines do not have rights to oil or minerals found under tribal land now being used by mining companies. The ruling was part of a complex decision by the High Court in Canberra on a 1994 claim by the Miriuwung-Gajerrong tribe for a special property right known as native title over 3,050 square miles of land and water. The area in northwestern Australia includes the Argyle diamond mine, the world's largest. Industry Minister...