foxnews.com
More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval.Many will remember, in September 1996, Bill Clinton turned 1.3 million acres of southern Utah into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, underneath that was $1 Trillion (yes trillion) dollars of low sulfur, low ash coal. There were only 2 other places on the planet that had comparable coal, one was Borneo Indonesia which just happened to be where the Clinton pals known as the Lippo Group just happened to be involved...Oh by the way, Clinton did this from the State of Arizona in 1996, he didn't step foot into Utah...
According to internal Department of Interior documents leaked to a Utah congressman and obtained exclusively by Fox News, the mostly public lands include Arizona deserts, California mountains, Montana prairies, New Mexico forests, Washington islands and the Great Basins of Nevada and Colorado -- totaling more than 13 million acres.
Sources say President Obama is likely to choose two or three sites from the list, depending on their size, conservation value and the development threat to each one's environment.