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STATE OF UTAH — On the bi-monthly Direct Link with Governor Spencer J. Cox that was heard on KVNU Tuesday evening, the governor was asked for his response to President Biden’s administration’s restoration of environmental protections for Bear’s Ears and Grand Staircase – Escalante national monuments in Utah.
“It was deeply disappointing because this is what we’ve come to, is this ping-ponging of monuments now. Where a Democrat comes in and to satisfy their base, their donors, they expand these monuments. And then a Republican president comes in and shrinks them, and now we’ve seen a Democrat come back in and expand them again,” he explained.
The governor said even more troubling is that it doesn’t do what the administration wants it to do.
“These lands were already protected under federal statute. By designating them a national monument, there are no additional resources that come to these monuments. That can be only be done through Congress. So what they’ve done and what we’ve found with the original Bears Ears proclamation, is that it puts a bull’s eye there for visitors from all over the world to come. And yet there’s no resources, so there are no additional law enforcement, there’s no visitor’s center, there’s nowhere for people to come, and it’s actually been more destructive.”
Governor Cox said they have seen more destruction to antiquities and more vandalism. Something that Native American tribes and local residents don’t want.
Direct Link is sponsored by the Utah Broadcasters Association and is heard every other month on Newstalk KVNU.
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