US national monuments at risk: Trump wants to open them up to oil companies
Environment — di Chiara Boracchi
The US could open national monuments to mining. Environmental associations are promising to fight in defence of unspoilt areas.
US national monuments at risk: Trump wants to open them up to oil companies
The US could open national monuments to mining. Environmental associations are promising to fight in defence of unspoilt areas.
The breathtaking canyons and landscapes of the United States national monuments are – perhaps – about to be handed over to oil companies. Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior in the Trump administration, presented a recommendation on 24 August on the future of the United States' public lands and waters, entitled "boundary adjustment", following an executive order by the President himself.
Smaller national monuments to allow mining
The aim would be to review the status of US national monuments in order to "shrink their boundaries" and sell off public lands to open them up to mining. At least 27 areas would be at risk, although the administration is trying to avoid publicly stating which national monuments are involved. Of these, the Washington Post specifically names three: Bears Ears National Monument, in Utah, created by former president Obama; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, designated a protected area by Bill Clinton in 1996; and Cascade Siskiyou, in Oregon.
.@SecretaryZinke recommended reducing national monuments - tell Congress to protect public lands: sc.org/2wKRXz7 #KeepItPublic
US local newspapers, meanwhile, are reporting that legal battles are being prepared almost everywhere to prevent protected areas from being reduced. Sierra Club, in particular – the country's largest environmental organisation – has submitted a request for access to Zinke's document (under the Freedom of Information Act) to verify which national monuments are genuinely at risk, and has launched a petition calling on Americans to help preserve the protected areas.
Editorial: @SecretaryZinke's plan for shrinking national monuments belongs in the recycling bin buff.ly/2wOeYRR #StandWithBearsEars!
Also mobilising is the Natural Resources Defense Council, which argues that Trump is handing over the country's wildest and most unspoilt places to fossil fuels, logging, commercial fishing and mining interests.