Trump reduces Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments by over 90%.
By Tom Molloy
The New York Times reported that Trump in July reduced the size of two National Monuments in Utah by nearly 3 million acres. Trump signed two executive orders to sharply cut the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to less than 10 percent of their current size. Both sites are known for their canyons, mesas, rich wildlife habitat as well as archaeological sites of importance to Native American tribes.
AP reports that, combined, the two monuments spanned more then 3.2 million acres, an area nearly the size of Connecticut. Trump reduced them to less than 303,000 acres a greater reduction than his first term. During his first term, Trump shrank both monuments, opening about two million acres to oil drilling, uranium mining and other development. Native American tribes and environmentalists sued and then President Joseph R. Biden Jr. subsequently restored protections to both sites before a court could issue a final decision. There will now be a new legal battle over whether presidents have the power to shrink such sites in the first place.
This legal fight could have far-reaching implications potentially putting dozens of other monuments at risk and opening millions of additional acres to commercial activities. The Trump regime has already taken a flurry of other steps to encourage development and recreation on federal lands across the country. In May, for example Trump moved to lift restrictions on all off road vehicles in most national parks. Many say the Antiquities Act does not authorize Trump to reduce the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase. The century-old law, they say, grants presidents the authority to designate monuments but not to abolish or shrink them.Some note that the law says presidents should limit monuments to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.
President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears during his final weeks in office in 2016. President Bill Clinton classified Grand Staircase in 1996.
Happily, the oil industry say they have little interest in drilling within the monument itself, according to Melissa Simpson, the president of the Western Energy Alliance, an industry trade group.
