Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments may soon be enlarged. Acting on a pledge he made as a candidate, President Joe Biden on Wednesday initiated a first step toward restoring the boundaries of the two formerly large Utah national monuments that Donald Trump had reduced by 2 million acres as a political favor to Utah politicians. Within the first few hours of taking the oath of office, the White House said the new president signed an executive order calling for, among other moves safeguarding the environment, a review of the boundaries set for Bears Ears, designated by President Barack Obama in 2016, and Grand Staircase-Escalante, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Biden’s order highlights the impermanence and perhaps futility of Trump’s gesture that severely shrunk those boundaries, currently the subject of five consolidated lawsuits that may soon be rendered moot. To read the other big Biden environmental moves
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