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These southern Utah sites were once off limits to development.
He doesn’t need Romney as an excuse, but this makes me wonder..
These southern Utah sites were once off limits to development. Now, Trump will auction the right to drill and mine there
The Trump administration Thursday finalized plans to expand drilling, grazing and other forms of development across a broad area of southern Utah that used to be protected as two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
The decision comes more than two years after Trump dramatically cut the size of both monuments and will likely intensify a legal battle with tribes and conservation groups who have sought to have the protected areas restored.
The expanses of windswept badlands, narrow slot canyons and towering rock formations are sacred to several Native American nations and prized by paleontologists and outdoor enthusiasts. Bears Ears contains tens of thousands of cultural artifacts and rare rock art; in the rock layers of Grand Staircase, scientists have unearthed 75 million-year-old dinosaur fossils.
But the lands also harbor significant amounts of oil, gas and coal the administration hopes to develop. Officials from the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service who manage the lands have said the new plans balance the region’s economic interests against the need to safeguard natural and cultural wonders.
The Trump administration Thursday finalized plans to expand drilling, grazing and other forms of development across a broad area of southern Utah that used to be protected as two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
The decision comes more than two years after Trump dramatically cut the size of both monuments and will likely intensify a legal battle with tribes and conservation groups who have sought to have the protected areas restored.
The expanses of windswept badlands, narrow slot canyons and towering rock formations are sacred to several Native American nations and prized by paleontologists and outdoor enthusiasts. Bears Ears contains tens of thousands of cultural artifacts and rare rock art; in the rock layers of Grand Staircase, scientists have unearthed 75 million-year-old dinosaur fossils.
But the lands also harbor significant amounts of oil, gas and coal the administration hopes to develop. Officials from the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service who manage the lands have said the new plans balance the region’s economic interests against the need to safeguard natural and cultural wonders.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/06/trump-administration-will-allow-drilling-logging-sensitive-federal-lands-utah/
