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The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board is fed up with Utah's latest attempt to pick a legal fight over public lands, calling out the state legislature and attorney general for "spending millions of taxpayer dollars on pointless political performance art."
Utah's leaders recently announced a challenge to President Biden's restoration of the original boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments as well as the Antiquities Act itself, the law that gives presidents the authority to designate national monuments. While previous legal decisions have upheld the Antiquities Act as giving presidents the authority to protect areas for historic, natural, or geologic significance, the editorial board is concerned that a challenge to the law that reaches the U.S. Supreme Court could threaten this long-held precedent.
Instead of a costly effort to fight the use of the Antiquities Act in court, the Tribune editorial board is urging Utah's leaders to be active partners in the management of public lands within its borders "for the benefit of local residents, our Indigenous neighbors, wildlife, and future generations."
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The threats to these irreplaceable landscapes are very real, but so are the options for protecting them. We urge President Joe Biden, his administration and Congress to implement meaningful reforms of the federal oil and gas program before any new leasing is authorized. America’s heritage is at stake.”
