Potential for oil revenue influenced decision to shrink Bears Ears National Monument
The potential for oil money influenced the Trump administration’s decision to shrink Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent, according to internal agency documents obtained by The New York Times.
Back in December, Trump made massive cuts to several Utah monuments, following the recommendation of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and angering conservationists and native tribes in the area. Discussions around the cuts to Bears Ears — motivated by the potential for oil money — were happening as early as early as March 2017, about a month before Zinke started reviewing the monuments, according to documents obtained by the Times.
Then, an aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) emailed Zinke’s chief of staff for policy, Downey Magallanes, to…
