Patagonia threatens to sue Trump over national monuments order

Outdoor-clothing maker Patagonia hit back at President Trump on Wednesday, threatening to sue over an executive order calling for the Department of the Interior to review national monuments designated during Bill Clinton’s, George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies.

“A president does not have the authority to rescind a National Monument. An attempt to change the boundaries ignores the review process of cultural and historical characteristics and the public input,” Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario said in a statement. “We’re watching the Trump administration’s actions very closely and preparing to take every step necessary, including legal action, to defend our most treasured public landscapes from coast to coast.”

Trump ordered federal officials to review two decades of national monument designations earlier in the day Wednesday, calling them “another egregious abuse of federal power.”

{mosads}The president framed the order as a way to return power to states and individuals, after former President Obama and his predecessors blocked development on hundreds of millions of acres of federal land and water by creating monuments.

Patagonia said it would “fight with everyone” it has to in order to preserve the Obama administration’s designation of tribal lands to form Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

“We take this as a sign that Trump and his team prefer to cater to fossil fuel interests and state land grabs for unsustainable development, rather than preserve a vital part of our nation’s heritage for future generations by protecting federal lands owned by every citizen,” the Patagonia statement read.

“As stewards of America’s federal public lands, the Trump administration has an obligation to protect these most special wild places,” Marcario said. “Unfortunately, it seems clear they intend to do the opposite.”