https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-shrink-2-utah-national-monuments-90-percent
By Anders Hagstrom Fox News
Utah Gov Spencer Cox praised the move, citing Antiquities Act limits on monument size as coal and uranium deposits open up
President Donald Trump signed an executive order drastically shrinking the size of two national monument areas in Utah on Monday.
The order applies to the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, shrinking their total coverage by roughly 90% from 3 million acres to 300,000. The areas were established as federal monuments by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2016, respectively.
“They took the land from the people quite honestly,” Trump said during the Monday signing ceremony. “We’re giving it back.”
“We believe that under the Antiquities Act, it’s very clear that these monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area possible to protect the antiquities, and these multimillion-acre monuments that are bigger than the state of Delaware certainly do not fit that designation,” he said.
