The national monuments slashed by Trump will officially be open to mining on Friday

[highplainsdem]

Source: ThinkProgress

At 9 a.m. EST Friday, the extractive industry will gain drilling and mining access to previously protected American land, according to an order issued by President Donald Trump late last year.

Trump took an unprecedented step for a U.S. president in December — signing a proclamation that dramatically reduced the size of two national monuments. Bears Ears National Monument was cut by more than 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was reduced by half. This resulted in the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history. The move put tens of thousands of Native American sacred sites at risk, along with key wildlife habitat, and areas used for outdoor recreation.

While the longer-term fate of Trump’s likely illegal action will play out in the courts, also buried in his December proclamation was a provision that on February 2, 2018, the areas excluded from the monuments would become open to private mineral companies to begin staking mining and drilling claims.

“We’re working on getting information and new monument maps ready for people interested in claims,” Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesman Michael Richardson confirmed to Reuters.

-snip-

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-national-monuments-mining-bc92ca54db29/

[Ohiogal]

1. A sacrilege.

[Laffy Kat]

2. I want to move away. nt

[Freethinker65]

3. Koyaanisqatsi

[TDale313]

4. Fuckers.

Quit looting and pillaging our nation!

[DemoTex]

5. Trump is 1000% worse than we feared when he was "elected."

[groundloop]

6. So much of 45*s damage won't be able to be undone

That bastard is giving so much of our country away to special interests and we'll never be able to get it back. He's the right-wings wet dream, too damned stupid to question anything so he just agrees to every proposal which is put in front of his nose.

[SunSeeker]

8. Indeed. Mining chages the landscape forever and produces toxic acid mine drainage for eternity.

Copper mines from the Roman era are still producing acid mine drainage. Mother Nature never meant for some of this shit to be dug up, exposed to air and mixed with water.

http://m.duluthreader.com/articles/2016/07/13/7566_rio_tinto_the_river_the_mine_and_the_corporation

[SunSeeker]

7. Sick, greedy, unpatriotic assholes. nt

[procon]

9. They're so happy! Why does destruction make Republicans so cheerful? nt

[elmac]

10. Fascists are just like ISIS

they both love to destroy historical monuments.

[Weed Man]

11. The mining rights are no longer for sale.

The public lands are still owned by the public, not Trump.

The public just told Trump to fuck off. At least this public.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Trump administration tears down regulations to speed drilling on public land

By Darryl Fears February 1 at 4:24 PM

The Trump administration is aggressively sweeping aside regulations protecting public land to clear a path for expanded oil and gas drilling.

A memorandum from the Interior Department, made public Thursday, directs its field offices “to simplify and streamline the leasing process” so that federal leases to the oil and gas industry can be expedited “to ensure quarterly oil and gas lease sales are consistently held.”

According to the memo, which was dated Wednesday, doing so will ease such “impediments and burdens” as months-long environmental reviews that assess the impacts of drilling and potential spills on the land and wildlife.

The new approach requires the Bureau of Land Management to process a proposed lease within 60 days. Once-mandatory public participation in safety reviews is now left to the discretion of the agency’s field representatives. Public protests of finalized leases will be shortened to 10 days, and a sale can move forward even if disputes are unresolved, according to the memo.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/02/01/trump-administration-tears-down-regulations-to-speed-drilling-on-public-land/?utm_term=.df24bf948beb

[Honeycombe8]

13. My heart is broken. nt

[alarimer]

14. I hope environmental groups sue to stop this.

I've heard almost nothing.