An Obama-era uranium mining ban at a Grand Canyon watershed could be withdrawn as part of a Trump administration review of projects seen as inhibiting the production and use of domestic energy.
The Forest Service, which admnisters some of the million-plus acres of federal land subject to the uranium ban in Arizona, put the withdrawal on a list of policies released Wednesday that will be under review.
The Obama administration instituted the ban in 2012 because of fears uranium mining would pollute the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, The Hill reported.
"This appalling recommendation threatens to destroy one of the world’s most breathtakingly beautiful regions to give free handouts to the mining industry,” Allison Melton, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
"The Trump administration's willingness to sacrifice our natural treasures to polluters knows no bounds. But this reckless, shortsighted proposal won't be allowed to stand."
According to The Hill, Republicans, industry and some local leaders have said the uranium ban unnecessarily prevents responsible economic activity.
"Uranium mining would have brought in nearly $29 billion to our local economy over a 42-year period," the board of supervisors of Arizona's Mohave County wrote in June to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, The Hill reported. "This ban took away much needed growth and jobs from our area."
Former President Barack Obama had been urged to turn the protected land into a national monument, which would have blocked mining and other development, but did not act on the proposal, The Hill reported.
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