Millions of acres of public lands in Utah eligible for sale under Senate tax bill

Millions more acres of public lands across Utah could be eligible to be sold off under a recent change to the Senate’s budget bill made in a committee chaired by Utah Sen. Mike Lee. The change, adopted Saturday by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, would significantly expand the land eligible for sale under the bill to include 18.7 million acres of land in Utah. The eligibility expansion includes land in major canyons in Salt Lake and Utah counties, as well as in the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges, and land near all five of Utah’s national parks, according to an analysis by The Wilderness Society.