Utah claims Bears Ears monument will kill uranium industry

The Obama administration pointedly excluded the White Canyon uranium district from the Bears Ears National Monument, disappointing the tribes that proposed the monument and paleontologists who hoped to see the canyons’ Triassic fossils protected.

But President Barack Obama’s nod to mining interests isn’t stopping Utah officials from claiming that the 1.3-million-acre monument he designated last year will destroy the state’s uranium industry.

In comments submitted to the Interior Department for Secretary Ryan Zinke’s review of 27 large national monuments, the Legislature’s Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands argued the Bears Ears designation not only abused the Antiquities Act, but also undermines national security.

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