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The federal government each year makes it harder to get off-grid, partially because it continues gobbling up land at an alarming rate. Believe it or not, Uncle Sam owns 28 percent of all the land in the United States, and if you’re out West, it’s even worse — nearly 50 percent.
It may sound like an April Fool’s joke, but it’s not. Yet there’s hope.
One state – Utah – is fighting back, and last year adopted a new law requiring the federal government to return 31 million federally owned acres back to the state. Other states soon could follow with their own laws.
That’s the subject of this week’s edition of Off The Grid Radio, as we talk to Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, the lead sponsor of that law who also is president of the American Lands Council, an organization fighting to secure local control of Western lands.
Ivory tells us:
- How the federal government reneged on its agreement with the states over land.
- What the next steps are in the battle over public lands.
- How state ownership of federal land could help solve a host of national issues, including America’s dependency on foreign oil.
- What would happen to national parks.
- Why the federal government owns more land in Western states that it does in Eastern states.
- What the Founders would have thought of the squabble between the feds and states.
Ivory believes states can win this land battle with the federal government – but only if Americans make their voices heard. Listen as one of the nation’s top experts on land rights shares his vision for reclaiming federally owned land!
