Emails Confirm Coal, Oil, And Gas Extraction Drove Shrinking Of National Monuments
Interior Department emails that came to light on Friday confirm that protecting companies' ability to mine oil, gas, and coal was a primary concern as the agency moved to shrink two national monuments in Utah last year. "We've long known that Trump and Zinke put polluter profits ahead of our clean air, clean water, public health, and coastal economies. This is more proof," Alex Taurel of the League of Conservation Voters said in a statement. "On Zinke's one year anniversary as secretary, the evidence of just how embedded Trump and Zinke are with the dirty energy of the past could not be clearer." Thousands of pages of correspondence and documents, uncovered by a lawsuit filed by the New York Times against the department after it failed to comply with an open records request for the materials, show that Interior staffers compiled estimates of how many coal reserves were located in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument as the agency was reconsidering the protected land's boundaries.