President Biden is reversing former President Donald Trump's decision to reduce the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.
Under Trump, Bears Ears — which former President Barack Obama made a national monument in 2016, at the request of Indigenous peoples — was cut by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante was cut by almost 50 percent. This opened up the land for possible coal mining and oil and gas drilling where it was previously prohibited, The Guardian reports.
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