Lawmakers send a message with environmental bills

It's clear the majority of Utah lawmakers are anxious to send a message to the federal government with the number of environmental bills that were on the table this session.

And while it can't be "Don't Mess With Texas," it came pretty darn close to saying keep your dirty little hands off our lands and leave the management to us.

Lawmakers endorsed a resolution saying the development of nuclear power is a good thing; the Western Climate Initiative, which Utah belongs to, is a bad thing; and the governor should just bow out.

It's clear, too, that the majority of Utah lawmakers wanted to send a message to those pesky environmentalists who want to sue over land-use policies or disrupt the federal process in place for the leasing of public lands for oil and shale development.

Leading the charge was Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, who ran multiple land-related bills and the resolution urging withdrawal from the Western Climate Initiative, an environmental-based coalition urging policies to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Noel, who hails from the heart of Utah's Red Rock country, made clear he's tired of the federal government and activists meddling in the state's ability to control its own destiny.

He struck back with a measure requiring litigants opposed to state environmental actions to post a bond early on in the court process. The bond is required so the state can recoup its costs for delays that may occur as the result of a temporary restraining order.

It irked activists.

"This is a message bill aimed at eviscerating the rights of Utahns who care about the environment. Legislators like Mike Noel should be required to post a bond to cover the costs the state incurs defending the constitutionality of their message bills," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL).

Noel went one step further and took a shot at protesters like Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah economics major who deliberately bid on Bureau of Land Management parcels last December with no intention of paying for them.

DeChristopher won 12 consecutive bids in protest of what he said were reckless and environmentally unsound decisions by the BLM to offer up precious lands too close to national parks.

Since there was no criminal law on the state books to prosecute that action, Noel decided to create one, making it a third-degree felony.