President Biden is expected to designate two new national monuments in California this week, which will prohibit future development on roughly 850,000 acres of tribal land.
After signing the new orders, Biden will shut down construction on more public lands than any other president in history except the former president Jimmy Carter according to the Washington Post.
The move would establish the 644,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument located in the southern part of the state near Joshua Tree National Park, sources familiar with the matter said. While no public plans have been announced for the new monument, sources have leaked details to the media, and the president’s public schedule shows he will travel to southern California’s eastern Coachella Valley, the site of designated tribal land, on Tuesday.
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 approximately 200,000 acres of land in Northern California, near oregon border, as a national monument. The move would establish the Sáttítla National Monument and also prevent any future energy development in the area.
While environmentalists, tribal groups and Democratic lawmakers urged Biden to declare the two new national monuments, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., argued that the designation of roughly 200,000 acres of land in Northern California is unnecessary because it is already protected from development, according to local California newspaper, the Redding Record Reflector. In addition, he added, it is already difficult to obtain approval for forest lands, and their further ban could make it difficult to fight forest fires in the area due to the lack of roads.
Chairman Yatch Bamford of the Pit River Nation, Sáttítla – Medicine Lake Highlands, speaks at a rally to urge the Biden administration to expand national monuments and sacred lands, outside the U.S. Capitol on April 16, 2024 (Getty Images)
The new monuments will be designated by Biden through his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows presidents to bypass Congress when they want to protect land and water for the benefit of the nation. Since the start of his presidency, Biden has already used his executive powers under the law to establish eight new national monuments while expanding four others, the Washington Post reported.
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President-elect Trump he has promised to unleash US domestic energy dominance during his upcoming term. Meanwhile, in the final weeks and months before Biden leaves the White House, his administration has made efforts to bolster its green energy priorities against any potential pushback from Trump.
Last month, the Biden administration released a report detailing the negative public impact of increasing liquefied natural gas exports, a move experts say could serve as fodder for environmentalists who want to challenge Trump’s efforts to boost U.S. energy production.
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Steve Milloy, a fellow at the Energy and Environmental Law Institute, said Biden’s latest national monument designation could serve the same purpose. “While Trump can undo anything Biden does, Biden is trying to create litigation traps for Trump that will discourage investors from projects on public land,” he said.
On Monday, Biden also used his executive powers to ban new oil and gas drilling off nearly all U.S. coastlines. “The decision to unilaterally block areas from future offshore oil and gas development is a strategic mistake, driven not by scientific or voting mandate, but by political motives,” the National Ocean Industry Association said.
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Fox News Digital reached out The white house for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
