Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday recommended shrinking the size of several national monuments, while leaving open the prospect of allowing drilling, mining and other industries in the protected sites. The Trump administration has yet to release details of the plans, which could affect up to 27 national monuments, and Secretary Zinke said only he was recommending changes to a “handful” of sites. In a statement, the Center for Biological Diversity said, “Trump and Zinke are hiding the report so they don’t have to face public backlash for trying to sell out America’s public lands to fossil fuel development and logging. They’re asking for a court battle. And they’ll get one.”
Interior Dept. to Reduce Size of National Monuments, Open Lands to Exploitation
HeadlineAug 25, 2017
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