President Trump reduced the size of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah by almost half of its original size; the land that was once protected is now open to the possibility of new leases for mineral, oil, and gas mining (Nordhaus, 2018). However, according to Nordhaus, Trump’s monument reduction will now be litigated, as the 1906 Antiquities Act grants the President the power to protect historic landmarks, but there is no language in the act that grants the president the power to rescind those protections once in place.

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