Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, has advised President Biden to reinstate boundaries at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, and also in a marine area off New England. All were reduced by former President Donald J. Trump.
The Trump administration finalized plans to open land once in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to mining and oil and gas exploration.
Interior Department emails obtained by The New York Times in a lawsuit indicate that oil exploration was the central factor in the decision to scale back the monument.
Bears Ears shrinks, Navajo neighbors cringe, uranium miners get a windfall.
Hundreds of mining claims fall neatly outside the new boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument, and a Navajo town scarred by uranium is bracing for new woes.
