Oil and gas resources played a bigger role in the controversial boundary changes ordered by President Donald Trump that removed 2 million acres from southern Utah’s two large national monuments, according to Interior Department communications obtained by The New York Times.
After taking Interior to court, The Times acquired 25,000 documents related to the creation and review of Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and other national monuments. The newspaper’s goal was to shed light on the opaque process Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke used to determine what to cut out of the Utah monuments.
Working under orders from Trump, Zinke launched a review last April of 26 large national monuments designated since 1996.