United States: Biden will create two new national monuments

Joe Biden must announce “next week” the creation of two new American national monuments, vast protected areas located in California, in order to strengthen his environmental legacy in the final days of his presidency, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Before the imminent entry of his rival Donald Trump into the White House, the 82-year-old Democratic president will make an official trip to proclaim recognition of the Chuckwalla National Monument, which will cover 252,000 hectares near Joshua Tree National Park, in the southern California.

The announcement, scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed until “next week,” the White House said, due to strong winds making any travel in the region impossible.

Protect the region against drilling

The measure aims to protect the region from drilling, mining, photovoltaic farms and other industrial activities. It follows pressure from Native American tribes historically attached to these lands.

Joe Biden will also create the Sattitla National Monument, in the far north of the state, on the border with Oregon, offering this area the same environmental guarantees.

“The breathtaking canyons and winding paths of Chuckwalla National Monument are unparalleled in beauty,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American minister in the United States.

“What makes this region so unique”

“President Biden’s action today will protect important spiritual and cultural values ​​linked to the land and wildlife,” and will allow “future generations to have the opportunity to discover what makes this region so unique,” ​​he said. she added.

Joe Biden’s four-year term saw the creation of eight more national monuments and the expansion of four.

The Democrat has thus protected more natural areas than any other president of the United States, according to the White House.

Make the action of his successor more difficult

The move comes a day after the signing of an executive order banning offshore drilling in a huge area of ​​coastal waters, encompassing the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California , Oregon and Washington, and part of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, reduced the size of national monuments during his first term in the White House, and environmentalists fear that the next four years will see a further erosion of protected public lands. Because the Republican promised to develop oil and gas extraction.

Faced with this program, Joe Biden seems to want to try at the last minute to make his successor’s action more difficult.

In mid-December, the outgoing administration set an ambitious new climate goal under the historic Paris Agreement, committing the United States to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 61 to 66 percent compared to to 2005 levels by 2035, with a view to reaching net zero by 2050.

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