The Prague Post - Eyeing green legacy, Biden declares new US national monuments

EUR -
AED 4.025463
AFN 78.167263
ALL 98.12143
AMD 428.757986
ANG 1.961978
AOA 1003.890567
ARS 1175.713524
AUD 1.813886
AWG 1.97271
AZN 1.867466
BAM 1.936199
BBD 2.20454
BDT 132.676823
BGN 1.958043
BHD 0.412787
BIF 3245.627521
BMD 1.09595
BND 1.459914
BOB 7.546156
BRL 6.405394
BSD 1.091778
BTN 93.147556
BWP 15.205732
BYN 3.573557
BYR 21480.619234
BZD 2.193157
CAD 1.559373
CDF 3148.664634
CHF 0.943954
CLF 0.027517
CLP 1055.952075
CNY 7.980215
CNH 7.994999
COP 4617.818039
CRC 552.257949
CUC 1.09595
CUP 29.042674
CVE 109.162859
CZK 25.256829
DJF 194.772658
DKK 7.461451
DOP 68.94317
DZD 146.132916
EGP 55.406831
ERN 16.439249
ETB 143.898803
FJD 2.537019
FKP 0.835862
GBP 0.850563
GEL 3.01429
GGP 0.835862
GHS 16.972364
GIP 0.835862
GMD 79.061399
GNF 9475.528482
GTQ 8.431346
GYD 229.254251
HKD 8.520633
HNL 28.031641
HRK 7.531044
HTG 143.343408
HUF 399.350875
IDR 18351.104812
ILS 4.100568
IMP 0.835862
INR 93.526347
IQD 1431.866134
IRR 46399.220938
ISK 143.095054
JEP 0.835862
JMD 172.167596
JOD 0.777072
JPY 161.061946
KES 141.638659
KGS 95.010491
KHR 4352.669558
KMF 487.859474
KPW 986.276181
KRW 1590.633299
KWD 0.337131
KYD 0.911348
KZT 550.076373
LAK 23680.10477
LBP 98136.316246
LKR 323.507761
LRD 218.95043
LSL 20.538045
LTL 3.236056
LVL 0.66293
LYD 5.285164
MAD 10.429775
MDL 19.620603
MGA 5076.303289
MKD 61.658793
MMK 2300.996619
MNT 3841.00944
MOP 8.779153
MRU 43.466064
MUR 49.724333
MVR 16.922669
MWK 1898.189804
MXN 22.386696
MYR 4.868891
MZN 70.012133
NAD 20.538045
NGN 1683.513946
NIO 40.281534
NOK 11.790932
NPR 149.712299
NZD 1.95777
OMR 0.421888
PAB 1.09595
PEN 4.018131
PGK 4.500209
PHP 62.527367
PKR 306.85129
PLN 4.192283
PYG 8698.556163
QAR 3.989667
RON 4.936776
RSD 116.170962
RUB 92.150642
RWF 1553.16187
SAR 4.110221
SBD 9.314783
SCR 15.702833
SDG 657.983462
SEK 10.947921
SGD 1.46277
SHP 0.861245
SLE 24.933268
SLL 22981.523891
SOS 624.338542
SRD 40.073149
STD 22683.951476
SVC 9.589967
SYP 14248.902271
SZL 20.538045
THB 37.379899
TJS 11.927797
TMT 3.83338
TND 3.348431
TOP 2.639392
TRY 41.641737
TTD 7.399933
TWD 36.251121
TZS 2908.99992
UAH 45.246584
UGX 4002.449729
USD 1.09595
UYU 46.363411
UZS 14146.542876
VES 76.763752
VND 28281.398907
VUV 135.466285
WST 3.094836
XAF 650.479299
XAG 0.037037
XAU 0.000361
XCD 2.967025
XDR 0.826303
XOF 650.479299
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.477062
ZAR 20.929909
ZMK 9864.868719
ZMW 30.641924
ZWL 352.89544
  • RBGPF

    1.0200

    69.02

    +1.48%

  • RELX

    -3.2800

    48.16

    -6.81%

  • NGG

    -3.4600

    65.93

    -5.25%

  • RYCEF

    -1.5500

    8.25

    -18.79%

  • AZN

    -5.4600

    68.46

    -7.98%

  • BTI

    -2.0600

    39.86

    -5.17%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    22.29

    +0.13%

  • GSK

    -2.4800

    36.53

    -6.79%

  • VOD

    -0.8700

    8.5

    -10.24%

  • RIO

    -3.7600

    54.67

    -6.88%

  • BP

    -2.9600

    28.38

    -10.43%

  • SCS

    -0.0600

    10.68

    -0.56%

  • JRI

    -0.8600

    11.96

    -7.19%

  • BCC

    0.8100

    95.44

    +0.85%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    22.71

    +0.22%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    22.83

    +0.7%

Eyeing green legacy, Biden declares new US national monuments
Eyeing green legacy, Biden declares new US national monuments / Photo: DAVID MCNEW - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Eyeing green legacy, Biden declares new US national monuments

Joe Biden is set to designate two new US national monuments -- sprawling parks -- in California as he looks to secure his environmental legacy in the waning days of his presidency.

Text size:

Just before Donald Trump is due to move into the White House, the 82-year-old will proclaim the 624,000-acre (252,000-hectare) Chuckwalla National Monument, near Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, the White House said Tuesday.

The move will protect the area from drilling, mining, solar energy farms and other industrial activity, and comes after lobbying from Native American tribes who have used the land for millennia.

Biden will also create the 224,000-acre Sattitla National Monument in the state's far north, at the border with Oregon, offering that area the same environmental safeguards.

Biden, who was in California on Tuesday, had been scheduled to announce the new designations during a side trip to the Coachella Valley, but high winds -- fanning a major fire near Los Angeles -- caused him to postpone.

The announcement will now be made at a White House ceremony next week.

"The stunning canyons and winding paths of the Chuckwalla National Monument represent a true unmatched beauty," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.

"It was my honor to visit this area to explore and meet with federal, state, tribal and local leaders to hear about the need to protect and conserve this sacred area."

The new designation "will protect important spiritual and cultural values tied to the land and wildlife. I am so grateful that future generations will have the opportunity to experience what makes this area so unique," Haaland said.

Biden's four-year term in office has seen the creation of eight other national monuments and the expansion of four more.

The latest move will mean he has conserved more lands and waters than any other US president, the White House said.

On Monday, he signed an executive order banning offshore drilling in an immense 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 a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

Trump reduced the size of national monuments during his first term in the White House, and environmentalists fear the next four years could see similar chipping away at the protected status of public lands, as the Republican seeks to expand fossil fuel extraction.

Biden's proclamations are the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions that seem intended to frustrate what environmentalists fear will be the wrecking ball of another Trump presidency.

In mid-December, the outgoing administration issued an ambitious new climate target under the landmark Paris accord, committing the United States to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66 percent below 2005 levels by 2035, on the path to achieving net zero by 2050.

V.Sedlak--TPP