There is also no evidence to support the claim that his agency did anything to protect the Grand Canyon area specifically, and a more detailed list linked to in the agency’s Dec. 28 press release curiously makes no mention of this issue. Interior Department/ScreenshotInstead, Zinke is taking credit for the government’s victory in a yearslong lawsuit over mining near the Grand Canyon, a legal fight that had already been argued in federal court a month before the Trump administration took office. In 2012, the Obama administration instituted a 20-year ban on new uranium and other hardrock mining on more than a million acres around Grand Canyon National Park. Zinke was still a member of Congress back when the government finished the legal work on the mining ban case. The only action Zinke’s Interior appears to have taken was not walking away from the lawsuit.

Source: Huffington Post January 13, 2018 00:00 UTC