Trump Order Could Open Up Area Larger Than Yellowstone to Drilling

More than 2.7 million acres of iconic US landscape could be at risk from fossil fuel exploration following Donald Trump's decision to review protections on national monuments, an Energydesk investigation can now reveal. Trump issued an executive order last month requiring the Department of Interior to review 27 monuments designated since 1996 -- suggesting they could pose a barrier to energy independence. Energydesk can now reveal that an area of protected land larger than Yellowstone national park could be at risk from drilling as a result -- with six national monuments affected by the executive order sitting above known or potential reserves of oil, gas and coal. The order requires Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to recommend whether monuments should be rescinded or resized within 120 days. Explicitly instructing him to consider the impact of the monument's protections on natural resource development...more