CHAPTER 2 A PRIMER ON SPLIT ESTATES IN THE NEW WEST: TOWARD A REGULATORY WAY OF THINKING

• Jurisdiction: United States

Surface Use for Mineral Development in the New West
(Feb 2008)
CHAPTER 2
A PRIMER ON SPLIT ESTATES IN THE NEW WEST: TOWARD A REGULATORY WAY OF THINKING
Brett Birdsong
Professor
William S. Boyd School of Law
University of Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada

Overview

█ History of the Federal Mineral Estate

█ Federal Mineral Reservations in Patented Lands

█ The Private Split Estate Analog

█ Federal Property Clause Authority and the Nature of Federal Minerals

█ Federal and State Control of Federal Minerals

█ Federal Common Law and Federal Property

█ Preemption and State Surface-Use Laws

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History of Federal Mineral Estate

█ The "mythical" Regalian right to minerals

█ Early Approach: Mineral Classification of Federal Lands

█ A Familiar Story: Fraud and "Waste"

█ A Modern Approach: Fragmentation of the Estate by Reserving Minerals in Federal Patents

Federal Mineral Reservations

█ Executive Withdrawal of Coal and Petroleum Lands from Homestead and Preemption Entry

█ Pickett Act of 1910 Withdrawals

█ Coal Lands Acts (1909 and 1910)

█ Patents to good faith settlers w/ reservation of coal

█ Reopening of withdrawn coal lands for homestead subject to reservation of coal

█ Agricultural Entry Act of 1914

█ Stock Raising...