Once again, the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah are potentially on a political merry-go-round for rumored development of mining and oil drilling.
As reported in The Washington Post Thursday, anonymous sources within the U.S. Department of Interior — which is in charge of these monuments — say President Donald Trump is considering shrinking the boundaries of six national monuments in the West for energy development.
Those monuments include Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, which Trump reduced significantly in 2017.
Trump’s proclamation reduced Bears Ears from nearly 1.35 million acres into an 86,447-acre Indian Creek unit and a 142,337-acre Shash Jaa unit.
Grand Staircase-Escalante was cut back from nearly 1.9 million acres to three units, the 211,983-acre Grand Staircase, the 551,117-acre Kaiparowits, and the 243,241-acre Escalante Canyons.
Just months after Trump was defeated by President Joe Biden, the monuments were restored to their original size.
Both reportedly are awaiting yet another review by Trump, as well as four other monuments — Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, Ironwood Forest, Chuckwalla, and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, encompassing landscapes across California, New Mexico and Arizona.
Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments have hosted three different Interior secretaries: Sally Jewell under President Barack Obama, Ryan Zinke under Trump’s first term, and Deb Haaland with President Joe Biden’s administration.
Jewell said she was “shocked” at the lack of protections for Bears Ears, while Zinke said it was an immensely “big” chunk of land that needed to be right-sized.
The legacy and controversy related to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument stretches back even longer.
It was in 1996 when President Bill Clinton, in front of a desk perched in the neighboring state of Arizona, issued the official monument proclamation, outraging state and local officials.
But the Center for Biological Diversity is already preparing for a fight based on the rumored review.
“Trump’s plan to strip protections from our national monuments shows just how low he’ll go to sell out our most treasured and wild places,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director and co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity. “This reveals Trump’s disdain for America’s natural heritage and his disregard for the American people’s love of public lands.”
The rumored idea behind Trump’s move to once again revisit these monument designations stems from his desire for the country to gain energy independence.
In the past, the Bureau of Land Management under the Interior Department said both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase have little to offer in terms of oil and gas potential.
There are uranium and vanadium resources in the Bears Ears area, but an existing mine was grandfathered in with the monument designation. Critics worry downsizing the monument opens up more potential for uranium mining, key to advanced nuclear technologies.
Utah officials said Thursday they are not surprised by the latest debate regarding Trump and monuments, given his track record.
It remains to be seen, however, how fast Trump could pump life into the coal market given his determination to unleash the fossil fuel development in the nation. But it also remains to be seen how much of that effort gets tied up in the courts.