Department of the Interior emails point to the shrinking of Utah's Bears Ears National Monument being tied to allowing oil and gas exploration on the site, The New York Times reported Friday.
The office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, initially suggested cutting back the monument area, which was created by President Barack Obama. Hatch's office noted the oil and natural gas deposits that are under the monument in emails in March, the Times reported.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke opened a review into changing the boundaries of the monument a month after Hatch's office provided maps of the monument's reserves, the newspaper noted.
President Donald Trump's decision to shrink the monument closely followed the boundaries in the maps Hatch provided, the report noted.
Hatch's aim was to bring back mineral rights for land trusts that Utah used to fund public schools. The map would "resolve all mineral conflicts," Hatch said in an email, according to the Times.
The state generated more than $1.7 billion in revenue from trust lands that supported public schools, mostly by selling mineral rights that allowed private companies to extract oil or gas. Obama's creation of the monument removed about 110,000 acres of those lands, the report said.
The Times obtained the internal emails, more than 25,000 pages, after it sued the Interior Department over failing to respond to an open records request.
The Bureau of Land Management issued approvals for two uranium mine expansions in southeast Utah, including one near the boundaries of the Bears Ears monument, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday.
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