The two top Republicans in the Arizona Legislature objected to Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision last summer to build a new national monument just outside of Grand Canyon National Park, saying the president had to move the site from historic considerations. They argued that he exceeded his legal authority to make the designation based on a 100-year-old law that gives protection to children. or culturally significant. In a lawsuit filed against Biden on Monday, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Thoma argue that Biden’s decision to designate the new monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906 It argued that it is not limited to, and is not limited to, the preservation of objects of historical or scientific value. “The smallest area that can provide both appropriate care and management of protected objects.”
This monument designation helps protect 1,562 square miles north and south of Grand Canyon National Park. The monument, called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, brings to life a decades-long vision of Native American tribes and environmentalists. Republican lawmakers and the uranium mining industry that operates in the area had opposed the designation, touting the economic benefits to the area while arguing that mining activities were a matter of national security.
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“Biden’s maneuver is incredibly dishonest and has nothing to do with actual artifact protection,” Petersen said in a statement. “Instead, it aims to halt mining, ranching, and other regional uses of federal lands critical to energy independence, food supply, and economic strength from foreign adversaries.”
President Joe Biden smiles as he signs the proclamation designating the Burge Nwabujo Ita Kukuveni National Monument at Red Butte Airfield in Tusayan, Arizona, on August 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The White House and the U.S. Department of the Interior declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The communities of Colorado City and Fredonia in Mojave County and northern Arizona also sued the Biden administration as part of this challenge.
The lawsuit alleges that Mohave County and Colorado City will see less tax revenue due to reduced mining activity, and that land-use restrictions imposed by the monument designation will reduce the value of surrounding land, including revenue-generating State Trust lands. Benefits Arizona public schools and other beneficiaries.
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In response to concerns about the risk of water contamination, the Department of the Interior enacted legislation in 2012 that placed a 20-year moratorium on applications for new mining claims around national parks. There are no active uranium mines in Arizona, but the Pinyon Plain mine is located just to the south. Grand Canyon National Park has been under development for years. The federal government said more than a dozen mines in the area that were withdrawn from new mining claims could still be opened. Days after Biden made the designation in northern Arizona, a federal judge in Utah filed a lawsuit in which the president seeks to restore two vast national monuments in the state that were shrunk by then-President Donald Trump. was rejected.
The judge said Biden acted within his authority when he issued a proclamation in 2021 to restore Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Both monuments are located on land sacred to many Native Americans.
