I do agree with you on one point...I am a believer in smaller federal government and allowing individual states to determine the future of their land use...but I generally distrust that decisions made at both the state and federal level will be wise ones that benefit all of the citizenry of those particular states...I have personally seen special interest groups with powerful lobbys that have influenced and even change existing laws to benefit a relatively small group financially.
While we may not be aware of any entities that have designs of use commercially for these areas at this time, trust me...there are some who eventually will. At some point, when it is seen as cost effective to seek out resource exploration, these permits will be applied for...and most likely granted. Only time will tell if these decisions benefit the residents of Utah, and at what cost.
To my point of general distrust of government decisions to protect land use for the benefit of all, I offer the mining project in the Bristol Bay Area of Alaska. This watershed is home to the single largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, worth several hundred millions dollars of revenue for the local population. The watershed was previously protected by the federal govt via the EPA to ban any large scale mining in the area, based upon residents not in favor of the project and scientific studies showing that the proposed "lake of acid" required to store the acid used in processing the gold & copper ore could potentially destroy permanently the river systems home to the salmon, not to mention all the other wildlife effected by a catastrophic failure. The new administration has appointed a new head of the EPA, and immediately removed this protection and will allow the permit application to proceed of the Pebble Group to construct the single largest open pit mine in the world for gold & copper...a Canadian company...what possibly could go wrong?
Land use issues are complicated...on one hand, I too believe that lands should remain open to public use...but sometimes misguided individuals make decisions that are not in the best interest of everyone....and some decisions have a permanent impact to the land that may not be reversible. On the other hand, I also strongly believe in being more self reliant in energy resource...the trick is to find the balance that achieves both of these goals.