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On Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Utah politicians who challenged President Joe Biden’s restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante national monuments. Judge David Nuffer ruled, consistent with numerous prior cases, that since Congress granted the president the authority to designate national monuments on national public lands, “Congress knows how to restrict statutory presidential power.”
Both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were designated as national monuments under the Antiquities Act: President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears in 2016 and President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996. In 2017, President Donald Trump attempted to shrink them, but President Biden restored them to their original boundaries during his first year in office. The lawsuit contended that the Antiquities Act doesn't grant the power to protect expansive landscapes, despite its use for this purpose multiple times since Theodore Roosevelt designated the Grand Canyon as a national monument in 1908.
“The president and Congress both know that national monuments are popular and vital to America’s future,” said Aaron Weiss, Deputy Director of the Center for Western Priorities. “That’s why the Antiquities Act is still important today, more than a century after Teddy Roosevelt first used it. It’s time for Utah politicians to stop wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on pointless lawsuits that they know will keep getting dismissed.”
Coalition seeks permanent protections for Caja del Rio
Members of the Caja del Rio Coalition gathered at an event to discuss the importance of establishing permanent protections for Caja del Rio, a 106,000 acre area situated between the Rio Grande and Santa Fe rivers in New Mexico. This area is considered sacred to many Pueblo people and acts as an important wildlife corridor, providing habitat for many species of reptiles, birds, and mammals. The protections sought by the coalition would safeguard the area from mining, new roads, transmission lines, dumping, shooting, and vandalism of sacred sites. View the Center for Western Priorities' short film featuring some of the leaders behind the effort to protect Caja del Rio.
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Our public lands work hard, having powered our nation with reliable and affordable energy for over a century. That’s going to continue, but the kind of energy we’re developing is shifting. President Biden and Secretary Haaland have been clear: We owe it to current and future generations to tackle the climate crisis, today. As we endure the hottest summer on record, this work takes on deeper urgency.”
