Platts reported a U.S. District judge this week turned his attention to a 1997 lawsuit protesting over the 1996 creation by President Clinton of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The judge said the lawsuit had languished too long.
The site of the monument is over the coal reserves, which the Utah coal industry plans to mine when current reserves run out in 10 to 20 years.
“When Clinton created the monument, there were even rumors flying through the conservative talk radio circuit that he was responding to lobbying from the Indonesian coal industry, which supposedly wanted this coal off the future Pacific Rim market,” Platts reported.
