Drilling and Mining Interests Pushed to Shrink Utah National Monuments, Documents Reveal

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Byย Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch. Reposted with permission from EcoWatch.

Even though Interior Secretaryย Ryan Zinkeย insisted โ€œthis is not about energy,โ€ environmentalists and public lands advocates have long suspected theย Trumpย administration’s cuts toย national monumentsย were driven by its push for more drilling, mining and otherย development.

Now, internal Interior Department documents obtained by theย New York Timesย show that gaining access to theย oil,ย natural gasย andย uraniumย deposits inย Bears Earsย andย coalย reserves inย Grand Staircase-Escalanteย were indeed key reasons behind President Trump’sย drastic cutsย to the two monuments inย Utah.

In March 2017, an aide to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked a senior Interior Department official to consider reduced boundaries for Bears Ears to remove land that contained oil and natural gas deposits. Hatch’s office sent a map depicting a boundary change for the southeast portion of the Bears Ears monument to โ€œresolve all known mineral conflicts,โ€ย the email said, referring to oil and gas sitesย on the land that the state’s public schools wanted to lease out to increase stateย funds.

As the Times reported, the map that Hatch’s office providedโ€”and notably sent about a month before Sec. Zinke publicly initiated his review of national monuments in Aprilโ€”was incorporated almost exactly into the much larger reductions President Trump would laterย announce.

In December, despiteย widespread public supportย to preserve protections forย public lands, Trump announced he was gutting the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears to only 201,397 acres and the 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante to just 997,490 acres. The move was the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S.ย history.

The Interior Department documents also revealed concerns over gaining access to coal reserves in Grandย Staircase-Escalante.

โ€œThe Kaiparowits plateau, located within the monument, contains one of the largest coal deposits in the United States,โ€ an Interior Department memo issued in the spring of 2017 stated. Nearly 11.36 billion tons are โ€œtechnologically recoverable,โ€ itย estimated.

Zinke has cited past presidential abuses of the Antiquities Act as the rationale behind his recommendations to Trump to shrink nationalย monuments.

โ€œNo President should use the authority under the Antiquities Act to restrict public access, prevent hunting and fishing, burden private land, or eliminate traditional land uses, unless such action is needed to protect the object,โ€ Zinkeย saidย inย August.

He has also insisted that resource extraction was not a reason behind theย reductions.

โ€œThis is not about energy. There is no oil and gas assets. There is no mine within the Bears Ears monument before or after, so the argument that President Trump stole land is false, nefarious and a lie,โ€ Zinkeย toldย reporters inย December.

Main image:ย The Citadel Ruins at the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.ย Credit:ย Bob Wick/U.S. Bureau of Land Management, publicย domain

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