No Land Sale To Ski Resorts

A proposal to sell public lands to the ski resorts operating on them has been pulled out of federal legislation, the office of Wyoming Republican Sen. Craig Thomas said.

Spokesman Dan Kunsman said Thomas, working with Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, managed to have the provision removed from the House’s version of the federal budget reconciliation bill in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The provision in the House’s version of the reconciliation bill had called for the U.S. Forest Service to let the operators of 40 ski areas buy the federal land their resorts are built on.

The Senate’s version of the bill did not contain the provision.

Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, had said last month that he would drop the ski sale provision from the bill.