Texas following Britain? #TEXIT

[snooper2]

33. In regards to federal lands it does, less than 1.5% of the land in Texas is federal property

Additionally, in most states in the West, extractive industries are permitted and regulated through the BLM; this is not the case in Texas, where the Railroad Commission of Texas is the agency through which companies gain access to the subsurface deposits of oil and minerals in the state.

How did this uniquely Texan condition, a wide-open western state with relatively little public-owned land, come to be? In a word: History.

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The Republic attempted to entice new settlers with grant programs and relatively cheap land costs, although the uncertainty of the Republic’s future, continued wars with Native Americans, and the ever present threat of war with Mexico greatly reduced immigration.

As a result of low immigration, Texas was unable to maintain a sufficient tax base, resulting in the young Republic being saddled with crushing debt.

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Texas’ wars with Native Americans and skirmishes along the Mexican border meant it owed a lot of money. The US did not want to take on that burden, however, so Texas entered the union with both its debts and lands intact, the first state since the original 13 colonies to do so.

The crushing debt would eventually be cleared as part of the compromise of 1850, which saw Texas ceding its claims over the territories in what would become New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oklahoma in return for $10 million in bonds. However, as a part of the resolution, all of the land within the new, fixed boundary of Texas was the property of the State, rather than the federal government, a situation markedly different from other territories in the West that would eventually become states.


http://www.wideopenspaces.com/public-land-texas-brief-history/