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The Trump administration’s plan to dramatically increase mining in the U.S. puts the Grand Canyon in the crosshairs

Jun 18, 2019

By Center for Western Priorities

In just over two years, the Interior Department has quickly checked items off of the oil and gas industry’s wish list, offering leases to more than 18 million acres of public lands for oil and gas development, proposing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and virtually the entire American coastline for drilling, and rolling back a raft of drilling safeguards. Now, the Trump administration has shifted its focus to the mining industry’s list of requests, announcing a plan to dramatically ramp up mining in the United States. The move puts some of the West’s most iconic public lands, including the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument, in jeopardy.