Ashley Soltysiak, Ashley.Soltysiak@sierraclub.org, 616-485-8290
SALT LAKE CITY -- Today marks the end of a public comment period for the Trump administration’s proposed management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The plan, being pushed forward despite ongoing legal challenges to the administration’s efforts to shrink the monument, opens significant portions of the remaining monument to dirty fuel development. More than 8,000 public comments were submitted in opposition to the Trump administration’s plan.
The dirty-fuel-friendly plan comes in conjunction with news that the Bureau of Land Management will share its new headquarters with oil and gas companies.
“The Trump administration’s motivation all along has been to exploit public lands to benefit the dirty fuel industry, regardless of the cultural, natural and economic costs. Utahn’s have now said loudly and clearly that’s not a price we are willing to pay,” said Ashley Soltysiak, director of the Utah Sierra Club. “Stripping the lands of Grand Staircase-Escalante of national monument status was illegal. And letting in mining and drilling before a court can overturn the rollbacks is out of step with public opinion. We’ll continue to fight for the protection of Grand Staircase-Escalante -- all of it.”
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The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.