New Executive Order Renews Attack on Public Lands

A new executive order from the Trump administration titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production” enables mineral extraction on federal public lands. According to an article from Rocky Mountain Community Radio by Caroline Llanes, “The order includes uranium, copper, potash, gold, and gives a new ‘National Energy Dominance Council’ broad authority to designate other minerals.”

The order also calls for streamlining the permitting process for mining and the immediate issuance of approval for some projects, encouraging federal departments to seek feedback from the mining industry on “regulatory bottlenecks” but not from local communities that would be impacted.

In addition to harm to wildlife and local ecosystems, Rachel Hamby, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities notes, “there are the well-known impacts to things like surface and groundwater and contamination of soil, and even the release of dangerous substances into the air that are gonna travel beyond the footprint of the mine or the production facility and impact nearby communities.”

Public lands across the country, especially in the West, are under threat as the new administration attempts to claw back protections for new national monuments designated by former presidents such as Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Now, Trump wants to end the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to create new national monuments for historical, environmental, or cultural reasons, and increase resource extraction on protected lands.