Still seething over President Clinton’s 1996 creation
of the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
last fall, Utah lawmakers are trying to turn their anger into
law.
A bill co-sponsored by Utah Republican
Senators Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett would require the president to
get approval from a state’s governor and from Congress before
establishing any monument over 5,000 acres. The proposal is one of
several bills before Congress aimed at limiting the 91-year-old
Antiquities Act, under which a fourth of all national monuments
have been established.
“We’re just trying to stop
the president from doing whatever the heck he wants,” says J.J.
Brown, a Hatch staffer.
Another bill proposed by
Sen. Bennett is designed to control management of the new monument,
using Clinton’s promises from his dedication speech as a guide. For
example, Clinton said the monument “will remain open for multiple
use including hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and grazing,” (HCN
9/30/96). Bennett’s bill interprets this to mean the monument will
be managed to serve “multiple use and sustained yield, including
recreation, range, timber, minerals, oil and gas, watershed,
wildlife, and natural, scientific and historical values.”
Environmental groups and Democrats in Congress
oppose the legislation, saying that the Antiquities Act is
important because it enabled the president to respond quickly to
serious environmental threats, such as the Andalex coal mine, which
was stopped by the creation of Utah’s new
monument.
In the House of Representatives, Utah
Republican Jim Hansen is proposing a bill that would limit
potential monuments to sites over 50,000 acres, a leap from the
current 5,000 acre requirement. So far, the bill has been defeated
twice, but is being amended and will be reconsidered over the
summer.
Al Eisenberg of the nonprofit National
Parks and Conservation Association believes that the legislation,
as is, won’t make it through the House. “Right now,” he says, “it
looks like we’ve built enough road blocks. They’ll have a devil of
a time coming over.”
*Emily
Miller
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bills target Antiquities Act.
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