The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created by President Bill Clinton well over 20 years ago, but for many southern Utah residents whose livelihoods were affected by this arbitrary and unilateral exercise of executive authority, the wounds are still fresh. That monument also placed billions of dollars of clean-burning coal off limits forever. Since those resources were located on school trust lands that provide funding for public schools, Utah students paid, and continue to pay, a steep price for this massive executive overreach.

The lesson that should have been drawn from that episode is that the 1906 Antiquities Act, the legal justification that allows presidents to create national monuments for “the protection of objects of historic and scientific interest,” is outdated, overused and too easily abused. While the designation of these monuments is supposed to be confined to areas of historical significance and limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected,” this language has done nothing to prevent presidents from making designations of whatever size and location they choose with no congressional input or oversight.

The latest example is a new proposed designation that would create the Atlantic Ocean’s first-ever underwater monuments in the Gulf of Maine, consisting of over 6,000 square miles of inaccessible undersea real estate. One would be hard-pressed to say that this area has any historical or cultural significance, and it is ludicrous to assume that a monument of such voluminous size is the “smallest area compatible” with preserving such areas for future generations, who, just like today’s citizens, will be unable to enjoy the beauty of the majestic area unless they have their own personal submarine.

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