During his visit to Arizona on Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced the unilateral establishment of a 917,618-acre “national monument” in three areas surrounding the Grand Canyon National Park in Mohave and Coconino counties.
Arizona Legislative Republicans gathered in response to what they say was the Biden administration’s decision to “ignore and cut out of the process” communities affected by the land grab.
As reported previous by the Arizona Daily Independent, House and Senate Republicans held an emergency special meeting in Kingman on Monday to give members of the local community an opportunity to be heard. No legislative Democrats participated in the event. The legislators subsequently adopted a Joint Resolution in opposition to the designation. According to testimony given at the hearing, residents in Mohave County resoundingly oppose the arbitrary designation of the monument.
Majority Leadership from the Arizona House of Representatives, including Speaker Ben Toma, Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci, Majority Whip Teresa Martinez, and Speaker Pro Tempore Travis Grantham issued the following statement in response to the President’s action:
Arizonans see through President Biden’s unilateral decision to declare nearly one million acres in Northern Arizona off-limits to American mining. At a time when Americans are struggling with rising costs and inflation, while the crisis at the border has never been greater, President Biden decides to spend his time in Arizona by visiting the Grand Canyon to tout his ultra-radical “Green New Deal” policies and further his woke and anti-growth agenda.
After hearing testimony from the local community, we believe this deal is bad for Arizona and the American People. Today, with more than 80 percent of critical minerals coming from foreign sources, our country has never been more dependent on others for natural resources, including resources we need to enable a 21st Century economy. This includes uranium, which is critical for not only national defense, but also for clean energy and modern medicine. Nearly half of all the uranium we use for nuclear power comes from Russia or Russia-controlled states, which provides up to $1 billion each year to the Russian state-owned nuclear agency and helps to fuel Russia’s war machine.
This area of Arizona is home to some of the highest-grade, lowest-cost, and lowest-impact uranium deposits in the nation. Instead of fighting to re-shore our domestic energy and natural resources supply, President Biden has embarked on a systematic anti-growth campaign to lock-up American lands and take 30 percent of federal controlled lands out of economic production by 2030, including these vast areas of resource-rich lands in Northern Arizona.
As Americans, we believe “American Made” means “American Mined.” We need natural resources, like uranium, to achieve energy and mineral independence in the United States. We simply cannot achieve reliable and affordable clean energy without nuclear power, but the President’s backwards policies, which pick the side of foreign adversaries like China and Russia over the United States, will only drive-up costs for consumers and make our ability to ensure clean air and water for everyone that much more challenging.