Biden Is Expected to Permanently Block Grand Canyon Mining
President Biden is likely to announce the creation of new national monument to protect about a million acres of land around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining as soon as next week, according to three people familiar with the matter. Senior officials in the Biden administration have been speaking in recent weeks with Native tribes, environmental groups and members of the Arizona congressional delegation, and some of those people have been told to prepare for “a possible announcement” when Mr. Biden visits Arizona next week. The three people familiar with the matter asked not to be identified in order to discuss internal deliberations. Abdullah Hasan, a White House spokesman, said that final decisions about the monument designation had not been made. But he added, “I can tell you that President Biden has conserved more land and water in his first year than any president since J.F.K., and his climate protection record is unmatched.” The area in question is already off limits to uranium mining, a designation made by President Barack Obama in 2011. But those protections are set to expire in 2032. If Mr. Biden were to designate the land as a national monument, those conditions would be permanent. The expected announcement was first reported by The Washington Post. Ashley Burke, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, which represents U.S. mining companies, said a moratorium on uranium development around the Grand Canyon would hurt the economy and force the United States to import the metal. “If any doubts remained about the Biden administration’s stance on domestic mining, this unwarranted withdrawal puts them to rest,” Ms. Burke said in a statement. “By continuing to block mineral-rich lands from responsible mining, this administration is imperiling our supply chains, robbing U.S. communities of high-paying jobs and community-supporting revenues, and enriching our adversaries.” Native tribes have long lobbied for the government to permanently protect the area from uranium mining that they say would damage the Colorado River watershed as well as areas with great cultural meaning for Native Americans. Environmental advocates hailed the plan to create a monument. “With unparalleled cultural, historic, ecological recreational and economic value, this designation honors the ancestral homelands of the original stewards,” Camilla Simon, executive director of Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting and the Outdoors, a nonprofit group, said in a statement. Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, has sponsored legislation to create such a monument since the Obama administration. He reintroduced a bill this year with Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent, to designate nearly 1.2 million acres as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. Baaj Nwaavjo means “where tribes roam” for the Havasupai Tribe and I’tah Kukveni means “our footprints” for the Hopi Tribe. “We know this place intimately,” Edmond Tilousi, vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe, said when Mr. Grijalva reintroduced his legislation. The Havasupai have lived in the Grand Canyon more than 800 years. “We simply cannot live without these clean waters,” Mr. Tilousi said. Creating a new monument would be the latest in a string of moves to protect land that is sacred to Native Americans, an effort spearheaded by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary. The new protections follow decades of tribal requests. This year, Mr. Biden created a new national monument, Spirit Mountain, in Nevada, insulating from development a half-million acres that are revered by Native Americans. He also restored and expanded protections for Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, sites that are sacred to Native Americans and had been opened to mining and drilling by the Trump administration. In June, the Biden administration banned drilling for 20 years around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, one of the nation’s oldest and most culturally significant Native American sites. In May Ms. Haaland traveled to Arizona at Mr. Grijalva’s invitation to visit the proposed site of the monument that Mr. Biden is expected to create to meet with tribal and environmental supporters. The meetings were not open to the public and Ms. Haaland has not indicated whether the administration intends to support the monument. Coral Davenport covers energy and environmental policy for the climate desk from Washington. She was part of a Times team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished public service journalism in 2020, and part of a Times team that received Columbia University’s John B. Oakes award for distinguished environmental journalism in 2018. More about Coral Davenport Lisa Friedman reports on federal climate and environmental policy from Washington. She has broken multiple stories about the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal climate change regulations and limit the use of science in policymaking. More about Lisa Friedman
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