Right-Wing Screeching Amps Up As Interior Review Of National Monuments Wraps Up
Southwestern tribes are asking President Joe Biden to restore and expand Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument beyond its original Obama-era boundaries—a move that GOP-aligned attorneys warn carries potential legal and political consequences. The attorneys said that if Biden goes bigger than then-President Barack Obama did on Bears Ears, it could further inflame GOP tensions over the monument and eventually undermine the new president’s plans if Republicans regain power in Congress in 2022 or if courts place limitations on the Antiquities Act. The act gives presidents the power to create monuments.
Two events this month are expected to help determine the fate of the embattled Bears Ears and neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments—both of which former President Donald Trump shrank with the support of many Western Republicans in Congress.
Many Republicans oppose the monuments because they encompass coal, oil, and other mineral deposits and are important for local ranching interests. To those Republicans, the monuments’ creation symbolizes Democratic overreach. “Should President Biden attempt to further expand the already extraordinarily bloated Bears Ears national monument, I think it’s fair to assume lawsuits will follow,” said David McDonald, an attorney for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents industry interests.
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An Interior Department review of Trump’s monument rollbacks is expected to wrap up the week of March 20 and include recommendations for how Biden can restore the monuments. Interior declined to comment about whether the review will be made public. On Friday, parties to litigation challenging the Trump rollbacks were scheduled to brief the court on whether the lawsuits should be stayed now that Biden is in office and expected to restore the monuments. But the Justice Department on Friday asked the court to stay the cases and delay the deadline for the briefs until June 3 to allow Interior to complete its review and the White House to respond.
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https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/tribes-ask-biden-to-go-big-on-utah-monument-as-litigation-pivots
