may 9 2010 utah is itching for a land fight a battle with washington over territorial rights and state sovereignty it wants to spark a revolt in which western states attempt to wrest control of federal lands within their borders the beehive state might just get its way too in march gov gary herbert r signed a controversial law authorizing the use of eminent domain to capture some of the millions of acres that the federal government owns here the law was tailormade to provoke a lawsuit possibly reaching the us supreme court and to inspire other western states to enact similar legislation while its unusual for eminent domain to involve the taking of federal lands this law is a byproduct of many utahns frustrations the us government owns more than 60 percent of the state thus dictating whether land has been set aside for preservation or can be accessed for mineral deposits the law also comes amid a wave of states rights initiatives nationwide which are challenging the federal governments authority on gun laws and president obamas healthcare reform in this country people are awake they are seeing the encroachment of the federal government more than ever says amber harrison an activist who traveled last fall to washington from vernal in northeastern utah she advocates that the federal government offer more leases on its land for oil and naturalgas drilling the eminent domain law ms harrison says gives us the opportunity as a state to tell the federal government that this is ours and we know how to control it she adds we can take some of these public lands and put them back to work for us land disputes are certainly nothing new in the rural and rugged west but many conflicts pitting preservationist against developer have become a central theme in utahs contemporary narrative especially as education spending is cut budget shortfalls climb and unemployment persists indeed some blame the federal governments barriers to development on mineralrich public lands for keeping millions in associated tax revenues from flowing into schools utah has the lowest per capita student spending in america over the past 15 or so years the state has taken an increasingly aggressive stance against the expansion of federally protected land the catalyst in 1996 president clinton designated the grand staircaseescalante national monument a 19 millionacre swath of southern utah that the state had eyed for energy developments one small section of the grand staircase has a trillion dollars in natural resources says rep chris herrod the republican state legislator from provo who sponsored the eminent domain bill the people of utah are being robbed then last year the obama administration revoked 77 leases for development on bureau of land management blm land in utah many here saw it as a sign that more federal control was bound for utahs public lands whats more a recently leaked interior department memo suggests that two more sites in utah could be potential national monuments which would