Westerners have been waiting for decades for someone in Washington to finally do something about presidents abusing their power under the Antiquities Act to lock up public lands.
And now, our time has come.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday instructing the Interior Department to review national monument designations his three predecessors have made over the past 21 years, according to administration officials and GOP lawmakers, a move that could upend protections that previous presidents have put in place in Utah and elsewhere across the country.

This review will include the most contentious use of the act, when former President Clinton abused those powers in 1996 to lock up one of the nation’s most abundant reserves of coal inside a newly created 1.7 million Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Can we get an amen?

In Colorado, the review will include Obama’s designation of Obama for Browns Canyon and Chimney Rock, and the Canyons of the Ancients near Cortez.

Do all of the monuments in the last 21 years need to be undone? Maybe not, but it’s high-time the White House take a closer look at the process and to make sure locals are really included for public input, and not just environmental groups with an agenda to stop energy production any way they can.

Greenies are already voicing their opposition before the process and announcement is even made, probably because they have their own involvement to hide.

“With this review, the Trump administration has launched an attack on Colorado’s heritage and the iconic public lands that are critical to our economy and way of life,” said Scott Braden, the organization’s wilderness and public lands advocate.

Really? Because westerners would argue that Clinton launched an attack on our heritage, by snatching up public lands and putting it off limits to multiple-use without local input.

That’s what was deeply offensive to us.

Stay tuned for the next nationally organized protest by the Democratic Party, a march to kill energy altogether, under the guise of saving public lands.