John Hansen: “on September 18, 1996, President Clinton went out to safety on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and stood there and…”

“on September 18, 1996, President Clinton went out to safety on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and stood there and declared 1.7 million acres of Utah as a national monument. He had a right to do that. It is called the antiquity law that was passed in 1906, and the reason it was passed is Teddy Roosevelt and others could see that we were ruining many of the prehistoric things that were around. We were finding all these things that had been there for years and destroying them. So he had a right to do that. I do not object to the right. What I do object to is the interpretation of the law. The law is very clear. It says that the President of the United States will do this for two purposes, and he will state these purposes. First, is to protect the archeological part of it, and another, historic site. This President did not declare either one. And the next part of the law is the key, and it says he shall use the smallest acreage available to protect that particular thing--1.7 million acres--bigger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined; and no one told us what was there, except we know that there was tons and tons of coal that is low-sulfur coal, high-Btu coal, and what would inure to the children who are educated in the State of Utah is 5.6 billion acres; money, billions of dollars, excuse me, that would inure to them. Also, a lot of the coal would be exported that would help people in other areas. But the President had a right to do that.”