Grijalva Ready To Go As Natural Resources Chairman; Zinke Attack On Nat. Monuments High On Agenda

[hatrack]

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The two reductions came after a Department of the Interior review, initiated in April, which looked at all national monuments created since 1996. “Who were the stakeholders that really influenced this? Because certainly the people left out of that process, in terms of consultation and discussion, never got a full hearing on that,” Grijalva said. “The people that did have access to the process were from industry. We’re going to look at that and attempt to make connections.”

Documents released earlier this year by DOI revealed that agency officials favored fossil fuel interests, along with ranching and logging. The revelations built on previous emails obtained by the New York Times in March that revealed oil and gas drilling was a key incentive for the Trump administration to shrink national monuments.

Together with investigating the secretive process used by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to decide which monuments to shrink, Grijalva, a nine-term congressman, plans to follow a legislative approach in response to the attack on the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

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Since the midterm elections, Grijalva has been throwing his weight behind legal efforts in federal courts to reverse the administration’s decision on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Grijalva and Udall led a group of 92 House members and 26 senators who submitted an amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief in support of plaintiffs that are fighting in federal court the administration’s decision to significantly diminish the size of the national monuments. It is highly unusual to have such a large and diverse set of groups weigh in at this level of court proceedings. The filings included 118 members of Congress, 11 attorneys general, 15 leading public land legal scholars, and 21 local mayors and council members.

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https://thinkprogress.org/incoming-house-committee-chairman-demands-accountability-for-trumps-destructive-monument-policy/

[Kurt V.]

1. Hopefully this will force zinke to resign.