Salt Lake City, UT - Today concludes the scoping period for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The planning efforts will focus only on areas designated in President Trump’s proclamation and will exclude almost a million acres of lands rich with sensitive resources. Sierra Club Utah helped generate over 8,700 public comments that stridently opposed the BLM moving forward with the planning process.
Ashley Soltysiak, Utah Chapter Director made the following statement
Salt Lake City, UT-- Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will close the public input period for the land use planning, for 15% of Bears Ears National Monument. The process would provide monument protection to the Indian Creek and Shash Jáa Units while excluding 85% of the original monument, leaving those areas vulnerable to drilling and mining and without adequate protection for the dense cultural and sacred resources. The comment period lasted a mere 45-days.
In the face of escalating pressure from Alberta and the Canadian government, British Columbia Premier John Horgan has remained steadfast in his opposition to the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.
Thursday was another whirlwind day for Scandalous Scott Pruitt, who’s polling numbers are tanking (down to 29%), as more and more disgraceful scandals and embarrassing headlines pop up. Pruitt’s bad behavior is now the cause of at least 11 federal investigations.
Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project today renewed opposition to President Trump’s illegal proclamation to strip protections from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The conservation groups, which submitted comments as the first round of public input closes today, also criticized the Interior Department’s disregard for preserving irreplaceable objects of cultural and natural value and its destructive push for dirty fuel development.
The Department of the Interior has withdrawn plans to massively increase fees for visitors to U.S. national parks, instead proposing modest increases. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke had previously proposed to increase fees to as much as $70 at many popular national parks. Polling by the Outdoors Alliance for Kids found that the proposed hikes were highly unpopular and would prevent many families from visiting.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate has voted to install coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as the Deputy Administrator of the EPA. Amid Scott Pruitt’s avalanche of scandals, Wheeler will be in a position to run the Agency if Pruitt resigns or is fired.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- House Republicans today released the FY2019 farm bill. The bill weakens the SNAP anti-hunger program and includes provisions undermining bedrock environmental safeguards for clean water, wildlife and forests.
Donald Trump issued an executive order today ordering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to recklessly cut short review of clean air permits and reconsider important clean air protections against harmful smog pollution.
Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump announced that he is ignoring the Clean Air Act to allow the year-round sale of 15-percent ethanol blends in gasoline. The Clean Air Act prevents the sale of ethanol blends above 10-percent in the summer months due to the air pollution caused by its use. According to experts, permitting the proportion of ethanol in gasoline year-round will only lead to more ozone pollution that will cause more smog in our communities.