INTERIOR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/RYAN ZINKE: “President Donald Trump is set to order the review of tens of millions of acres of land and water set aside as national monuments by the past three presidents on Wednesday, a move that environmental groups warn will undermine a crucial conservation tool and open up sensitive areas to fossil fuel development.
The review will be conducted by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and will encompass the dozens of monuments created over the past 21 years, although the main focus will be on President Barack Obama’s designation last year of Bears Ears National monument, as well as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument protected by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Both of those are in Utah, and the state’s lawmakers have pressed to revoke the monument status for the two sites, which are believed to hold fossil fuel resources.
But Zinke sought to quell concerns that the executive order would roll back conservation protections provided by 1906 Antiquities Act, saying the Trump’s order ‘does not strip any monument … or loosen any environmental conservation on any land or marine areas.’
Yet environmental groups fear the review is a simply a pretense to unwind the federal protections in the future, since both Trump and Zinke have supported growing U.S. fossil fuel output.”
-Esther Whieldon, “Trump to order review of national monuments,” Politico, April 26, 2017 9:19pm