06.05.20

Chair Grijalva: Trump Illegal Rollback of Marine Monument Protections Shows He’s in “Recreational Destruction Mode” as He Clings to Power

Washington, D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva today released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to end restrictions on commercial fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The move comes just one day after he signed an executive order waiving the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act in some circumstances, falsely describing the giveaway long sought by polluters as a targeted response to the current economic emergency.

“There are few words left to describe this president’s disdain for the health and environmental quality of our country. With more than 100,000 Americans dead from coronavirus, more than 40 million out of work and our country facing its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Trump made the time to weaken our marine habitat protection standards, which says everything that needs to be said. He has never shown any respect for our conservation laws, but this week has seen him move to pure recreational destruction mode. We’ve seen where his true loyalties lie, and we should expect the same treatment for every standard he or his polluter allies have ever laid eyes on until his time in office is over. He clearly intends to leave us with a poorer, dirtier country than the one he found when he came to office, and today’s step is another down that unwelcome path.”

Chair Grijalva has been an outspoken opponent of the president’s anti-environment agenda, and has stood against Trump’s previous attacks on national monuments. In December 2017, President Trump illegally shrank Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by approximately 85 percent – a decision motivated partially by fossil fuel development – and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by nearly half. Those decisions are still being challenged in federal court.

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