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Blog Archives - Page 7 of 140
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November 30th, 2017FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Steve Bloch, 801-428-3981
In response to reports in the Washington Post today that President Trump intends to eliminate 85% of Bears Ears National Monument and half of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Scott Groene issued the following statement:
“If President Trump chooses to act on the disgraceful work that is leaking out of the Department of Interior by shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments, it will not withstand its coming test in courts any more than it will withstand the judgement of history.”
“The new boundaries reflected in the leaked reports are a decimation of two iconic landscapes and an insult to the tribes that advocated to protect Bears Ears. To slash these monuments at the behest of ideological extremists and dirty energy barons without regard to the consequences to the landscape or to the overwhelming consensus of millions of Americans who have voiced strong opposition to any changes to our national monuments would be the single most harmful attack any president has launched on public lands.”
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November 16th, 2017Read More »Our e-newsletter with the latest on redrock wilderness news and events.
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November 9th, 2017On November 8th, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed one of the most egregious dirty energy bills Trump’s Congress has attempted yet. H.R. 4239, the so-called “SECURE Act,” prioritizes fracking above all other energy sources, decimates rules that regulate drilling, guts public involvement and input on development through the National Environmental Policy Act, and worst of all, gives the states permitting and oversight authority over energy development on federal lands!
Please contact your representative and tell them to oppose H.R. 4239 when it comes to the floor!
We won’t bother to tell you the Orwellian phrase they came up with to get to the name “SECURE Act.” You should think of it as the “So the Earth is Completely Undermined, Ravaged, and Eviscerated Act.”
Can you imagine a world in which state politicians are calling the shots on which federal lands should be drilled? In Utah, precious little public land would be left unexploited. The passage of this bill would effectively be the first step in the state of Utah’s wild-eyed plan to take over federal lands.
Troublingly, we’re hearing that the SECURE ACT could get a vote on the floor as soon as next week. That’s why it’s imperative that you contact your member of Congress and ask them to oppose it today!
In addition to all the horrors listed above, the bill weakens protections for marine mammals, expands offshore drilling in America’s oceans, undoes protections in the Arctic, and eliminates the ability for a president to withdraw areas from drilling off the coasts. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of destruction.
Thank you!
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November 7th, 2017
President Trump announced he is coming to Utah in early December. His stated intent is to eliminate vast portions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. He may also act to reduce other monuments around the country at that time.
This action is illegal, unwarranted, and dismisses the more than 2.8 million people that petitioned President Trump to keep our national monuments fully intact. It is also an affront to Native American Tribes.
Join fellow Utahns on December 2nd to resist Trump’s efforts to dismantle our national monuments. Let’s send a clear and visible message that we intend to “Honor Tribes” and defend the priceless scientific, cultural, and ecological legacy these monuments represent.
RALLY AGAINST TRUMP’S MONUMENTAL MISTAKE
Saturday, December 2nd, 1:00pm-2:30pm
Utah State Capitol, South Steps
Salt Lake City, Utah
NOTE: If you can’t make the rally, you can still participate by watching the livestream on our Facebook page starting around 1pm MST on Saturday. We also encourage you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and share our posts from the rally!
Bring your #SaveGrandStaircase and #StandWithBearsEars signs and wear your “Protect Bears Ears” and “I Stand with Grand Staircase-Escalante” t-shirts. If you don’t have signs, pick them up at Wasatch Touring (700 E 100 S), at the event, or make your own. T-shirts are sold at Wasatch Touring and at the event.
Please share this event widely! Bring family and friends! Let’s make a statement by standing together as Utahns and Tribal Nations.
>> Click here to learn more, RSVP, and invite friends on Facebook!
We are also organizing a street protest for when Trump is in Salt Lake City on Monday, December 4th. For up-to-the-minute information, please text UTAH to 52886 or follow this link: http://p2a.co/Q5CRLmr
IMPORTANT: If you are attending either event, please note that SUWA acts within the law. We do not condone violence or destruction of property
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October 26th, 2017A new Utah poll demonstrates, again, that while bold conservation is often controversial at inception, it becomes appreciated with time. But Utah’s politicians still haven’t learned. When significant landscapes are protected by executive orders, they pull the Chicken Little routine and shake their fists at the sky. History proves them wrong every time.
And it’s happening all over again.
A new Dan Jones poll shows Utahns 2-1 oppose Utah politicians’ efforts to break apart the Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument. Twenty years ago, President Clinton was hung in effigy in Escalante for establishing the monument. Today, local businesses there and in Boulder are pleading with the Trump administration to leave it intact.
Buttes along the Burr Trail, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Copyright Jeff Foott
As we’d expect, the poll shows less support for the nascent Bears Ears National Monument. This is probably due to the steady outpouring of flagrantly false claims made by Senator Hatch, Representative Bishop and others that the monument will somehow devastate local economies and harm school kids. Still, only half of Utahns have bought into the lies so far as to favor reducing the monument.
Given time, the majority of Utahns will solidly celebrate Bears Ears as they do the Grand Staircase.
And of course, these lands belong to all Americans, not just those of us living here in Utah.
Bears Ears Buttes in Bears Ears National Monument. Copyright Jeff Foott
These protections are good for America. There is no serious argument that we’d be better off today if the Grand Staircase-Escalante had been sacrificed to a coal mine—especially as the view from the Kaiparowits Plateau (where the coal diggers wanted to dig) already includes the 800-foot-tall smokestacks at the Navajo Generating Station, set to close in two years because burning coal is no longer economic.
President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument for the Tribes who have lived and used these lands since time immemorial, and it will be a great injustice if it is undone. Utah politicians will go down as standing far on the wrong side of history.
Every time Americans have chosen to protect western landscapes, the decision has been recognized as wise, with the perspective of time, by citizens living both far from and near the affected lands. This week’s poll confirms that, again. Will Utah’s politicians ever learn?