President Biden is expected to establish a new national monument in the Chuckwalla Valley, south of Joshua Tree National Park. (Watchara Phomicinda/MediaNews Group/The Press-Enterprise via Getty Images)
In addition to Biden's plans to designate a large swath of the Colorado Desert located in Southern California as a national monument, the president also plans to designate roughly 200,000-acres of land in Northern California, near the Oregon border, as a national monument. The move would establish the Sáttítla National Monument and would also bar any future energy development in that area.
While environmentalists, tribal groups and Democrat lawmakers have urged Biden to designate these two new national monuments, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., has argued that designating the roughly 200,000-acres of land in Northern California is unnecessary because it is already protected from development, according to local California news outlet, the Redding Record Searchlight. Additionally, he added, getting permits approved on forest service lands is already difficult and prohibiting them further could make it more difficult to fight wildfires in the area due to a scarcity of roads.
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On Monday, Biden also used his executive authority to ban new oil and gas drilling off nearly all U.S. coasts. "The decision to unilaterally block areas from future offshore oil and gas development is a strategic error, driven not by science or voter mandate, but by political motives," the National Ocean Industries Association said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-dedicate-national-monuments-850k-acres-tribal-land-california