President Obama has designated 1.65 million acres in Southeastern Utah and Nevada as National Monuments, protecting the land from private development and granting the federal government broad control to protect it. The new monument includes Bears Ears Buttes in Utah, and Gold Butte near Las Vegas.
There’s a reason Obama picked these sites: They’re both culturally significant to local Native American tribes. Five tribal governments had asked for Bears Ears’ protection, due to its ceremonial sites and rock art. The president’s proclamation also creates a Bears Ears commission to protect the monument, with the specific goal of ensuring that the tribes themselves can offer their guidance on how to protect the area. The same goes for Gold Butte, which contains “abundant rock art, archeological artifacts, and rare fossils, including recently discovered dinosaur tracks dating back hundreds of millions of years” but has also faced vandalism, according to a White House press fact sheet.
My favorite was a line in a Washington Post article where critics called it a "federal land grab," obviously neglecting the fact that the land is already federally owned.
And preventing any Senators from trading them out for personal gain.Good to see this happen. Now they need to have a law with teeth to punish anyone defacing these historic sites.
lol Okay, I laughed out loud at that.Phhht...Obama
This is obviously another win for Gamergate
Walk me through this like I don't know anything about gamergate other than to avoid that thread.Phhht...Obama
This is obviously another win for Gamergate
Walk me through this like I don't know anything about gamergate other than to avoid that thread.
They should reopen the Orphan Mine. Think of all the uranium that still might be in the Grand Canyon. Why do we need to protect the environment? If it wanted protection, it should have armed itself.So they are planning to mine coal and uranium there? Should do wonders for tourism.
Back when Clinton proclaimed the Escalante Grand Staircase there was a conspiracy theory that he did it to lock up American coal to the benefit of Indonesian coal miners. The claim was that there was $5 trillion in coal on the monument. There is coal there… at 9000 feet below surface. No one chases coal that deep; the energy requires to extract the coal would be more than the energy content of the coal. Add to the equation that there are no railroads or transmission lines in the region and the costs go even higher.So they are planning to mine coal and uranium there? Should do wonders for tourism.
Bravo!