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President Biden is expected to designate two new national monuments in California this week, which would bar about 850,000 acres of tribal land from future development.
After signing the new order, Biden will halt development on the most public lands of any president other than former President Jimmy Carter, according to the Washington Post.
The move would create the 644,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in the southern part of the state near Joshua Tree National Park, sources said. No public plans have been announced for the new monument, but sources have leaked details to the media, and the president’s public schedule shows he plans to travel to Southern California’s eastern Coachella Valley, home to scheduled tribal lands, on Tuesday. It is.
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President Biden plans to establish a new national monument in the Chuckwalla Valley, south of Joshua Tree National Park. (Watchara Phomicinda/MediaNews Group/The Press-Enterprise, Getty Images)
In addition to his plan to designate a vast area of the Colorado Desert in Southern California as a national monument, Biden also plans to designate approximately 200,000 acres of land in Northern California near the Oregon border as a national monument. are. The move would establish Sattitra National Monument and also impede future energy development in the area.
Environmentalists, tribal groups and Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to designate these two new national monuments, but Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) has announced that the roughly 200,000 They argued that there was no need to designate the acres because they were already protected. According to Redding Record Searchlight, a local California news outlet, the project began with development. Additionally, permits are already difficult to obtain on forest management lands, and further bans could make fighting wildfires in the area even more difficult due to a lack of roads. added.
Pit River Nation President Yatch Bamford speaks at a rally urging the Biden administration to expand national monuments and sacred sites on April 16, 2024 in Sattila, Medicine Lake Highlands. (April 16, 2024) (Getty Images)
The new monument would be designated through Biden’s authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows the president to bypass Congress when seeking to protect land and water for the national benefit. . Since taking office, Biden has already used the law’s executive powers to establish eight new national monuments and expand four others, The Washington Post reported. .
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President-elect Trump has vowed to loosen the United States’ grip on domestic energy during his next term. Meanwhile, in the final weeks and months before Mr. Biden leaves the White House, his administration has worked to shore up its green energy priorities in preparation for a potential blowback from Mr. Trump.
The Biden administration released a report last month detailing the negative impact rising liquefied natural gas exports are having on Americans, but experts say the move is part of President Trump’s efforts to increase U.S. energy production. It has been pointed out that this could serve as material for environmental activists who wish to object to the issue.
Experts say Biden administration report could delay President Trump’s efforts to release domestic natural gas
Steve Milloy, a research fellow at the Energy and Environmental Law Institute, said Biden’s latest national monument designation could serve the same purpose. “Trump can undo anything Biden does, but Biden is trying to set a legal trap on Trump to discourage investors from building projects on public lands,” he said.
Biden also used his executive powers on Monday to ban new oil and gas drilling along most of the nation’s coasts. “The decision to unilaterally block regions from future offshore oil and gas development is a strategic error, driven by political motivations rather than science or voter mandate,” the National Marine Industries Association said in a statement. said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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