Monumental miscalculation
Millions of acres of this country’s backcountry and coastal waters may lose their protected status as President Trump rips through more federal rules that safeguard the outdoors.
As he nears his 100th day in office, the White House is scrambling to burnish a paltry record by taking aim at the environment and chain-sawing protective laws. The actions come with pleasing talk of jobs, innovation and regulatory overreach, but the big winners will be oil drillers, mining interests and commercial development in parts of the nation’s wildest places.
On oil drilling, the president is planning to use his executive power to call for a review of moves by President Barack Obama that curbed oil and gas exploration along parts of the Atlantic seaboard and in Alaskan waters.
Obama had tapped a 1953 law that allows a president to withdraw unleased watery acreage from potential use. That move sidestepped the need for congressional action, inconceivable given Republican hostility on the topic, and the decision came after a long push from environmental, tourism and fishing groups fearful of oil spills and intrusive drilling.
In California’s case, offshore drilling is a political nonstarter. If the Trump team moves on this state’s protections, it will bring on another battle in the widening war with the White House. Republicans here looking to improve their image shouldn’t want any part of putting more derricks along the Pacific coast or advocating them elsewhere.
Trump is also aiming to roll back the Antiquities Act, a century-old law that gives the president the power to put federal land with scientific or historic value off limits to development by declaring them national monuments. Obama used the law to a much greater extent than other presidents, but rarely has a White House office holder moved to undo a predecessor’s action. The legal uncertainty of Trump’s action is sure to invite a court battle on top of a political brawl.
First in line will be the monument status of a million acres in Utah known as Bears Ears dotted with American Indian archaeological sites, plus a smaller area in Maine. Erasing Obama’s designation plus an earlier one in Utah made by President Bill Clinton would put the areas back in wider use and please Republican leaders who don’t see a need for serious controls.
If Trump wants notice for his achievements to date, these rollbacks go in the opposite direction, adding to an unmistakable and disastrous record. He’s inviting more use of coal, weaker environmental rules and enforcement, and rejection of climate change in the face of overwhelming science.