Yes, President Trump Can Undo Controversial National Monuments

Jonathan Wood

Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order requiring a review of the large national monuments that have been created over the last 21 years. The president ran on a platform of reducing regulations to promote jobs and economic growth, but he inherited vast areas -- nearly a billion acres in total -- that have been shut off from productive use under the Antiquities Act.

His predecessor, Barack Obama, was the king of Antiquities Act abuse, designating more monuments covering more area than any prior president. He tripled the total area restricted, adding more than 500 million acres in new and expanded monuments. Most of this area was locked up during the last year of Obama's presidency, once he was no longer accountable to voters.

There's a reason presidents designate "midnight" monuments at the end of their terms: they can be extremely controversial when people depend on the use of areas being closed off to support their families.............  More