Back in 1996, President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah — at over 1,880,461 acres, larger than the state of Delaware, it was the largest monument in the continental United States at the time. But that status didn't last. In 2017, President Trump slashed its size by almost half, lopping off huge chunks from the sides and isolating the Escalante portion from the rest.
Now, the Trump administration has released a management plan for the eviscerated monument, despite the fact that lawsuits challenging its size reduction are still ongoing. The plan is unsurprisingly tilted towards ranching and extractive industries like mining and drilling. Just as with Trump's plan to keep coal-fired power plants in business, it's a sort of ersatz Brown New Deal, using government dollars...