Greens threaten lawsuit over potential monument reductions

Opponents of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s push to shrink national monuments say they will sue the Trump administration if the president follows through on Zinke’s suggestions. 

“The law is clear: only Congress has the authority to change a national monument designation under the Antiquities Act — not the president,” said Drew Caputo, the vice president of litigation for lands, oceans and wildlife at Earthjustice, an environmental law center.

“If President Trump attempts to carry out any recommendations to gut or shrink our national monuments, we will see him in court,” he said.

{mosads}

Zinke on Thursday filed a draft report with the White House suggesting Trump shrink the number of acres of “a handful” of national monuments that were established by previous presidents. The Interior Department did not outline what monuments are recommended for Trump to shrink, but Zinke said he would not ask Trump to eliminate any of the 27 protected areas under his review.

Zinke had previously announced he would ask Trump to reduce the size of the 1.3 million acre Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a proposal that drew opposition from conservationists and green groups.

Supporters of Zinke’s review note that presidents have reduced the size of national monuments in the past, arguing the Antiquities Act gives presidents that power. But that has never been tested in the legal system, and opponents of the review have telegraphed potential lawsuits if Trump does diminish monument designations.

Other opponents of the review criticized Zinke on Thursday.

Several equated the plan to what the Friends of the Earth called “another in a long line of blatant handouts to the oil and gas industry” because it could clear the way for energy production on more public lands 

Others called for Zinke to publicize details of the report, which is under review at the White House.

Many invoked former President Theodore Roosevelt, a role model for Zinke and the president who signed the Antiquities Act into law.

“These recommendations have the potential to impact the future of world-class hunting and fishing on some of America’s finest public lands and set a precedent for the future status of all national monuments, even those created by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906,” Whit Fosburgh, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said in a statement.

“But we won’t know until the results of this public process are made public,” he continued.

On the other hand, conservatives said they were pleased with the outlines of Zinke’s proposal.

“I am encouraged by the recommendations to revise previous designations that were inconsistent with the law and outside the Act’s size limitations,” Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), a critic of the Antiquities Act, said.

“It is my hope that President Trump takes this opportunity to begin realigning uses of the law with its intended purpose,” he said.

Bishop has said he will file legislation to reform the Antiquities Act later this year.