"A top Senate Democrat expected to be a leading voice against Gov. Mike Leavitt's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency has written a pointed letter about Leavitt's April deal to eliminate nearly 6 million Utah acres from study as potential wilderness."
Would the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument be part of that acreage in Utah?
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
http://chriscannon.house.gov/cannon/grand_staircase-escalante.html On September 18, 1996, in the midst of the presidential campaign, President Clinton traveled to Arizona and designated the 1.7 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah. The Monument is approximately the size of Connecticut. Utahns were outraged because the plan was not disclosed to Utahns or their elected leaders. Also, 175,000 acres of
Utah school trust lands were trapped inside the Monument. Ironically, Utahns would have supported some sort of protective designation in portions of the area. But, the lack of consultation led to a designation fraught with problems that the local residents, the State of Utah and the federal government will be forced to grapple with over the next decade or more.
REMARKS BY REP. CHRIS CANNON ON THE HOUSE FLOOR
"One Year Anniversary: Utah's Schools Shouldn't Continue to Pay for the
Creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument"
http://chriscannon.house.gov/cannon/utah_schools_shouldn.html September 18, 1997
Mr. Speaker, today is the one year anniversary of President Clinton's declaration of the massive Utah Monument in my district.
Within the Monument are 175,000 acres of school trust lands. They contain vast deposits of coal, large quantities of oil, gas and hard rock minerals. The total value is in the billions of dollars.
A year ago, the President stood in Arizona and promised that "creating this national monument should not and will not come at the expense of Utah's children" and vowed to create a working group, including Utah's congressional delegation, to find equivalent lands for exchange.
A year later, no working group exists. No member of the Utah delegation has been contacted. And the Utah School Trust has been unable to open negotiations.
Mr. President, I ask for your help. With 48 of my colleagues, I am sending you today a letter asking for creation of the promised working group. The burden of your decision to create the Monument should not - it must not - fall on Utah's school children.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.