Cynical long-term prediction ahead: The powers that be have wanted this for years. Energy interests from the time when oil was MUCH higher priced, politicians

Cynical long-term prediction ahead: The powers that be have wanted this for years. Energy interests from the time when oil was MUCH higher priced, politicians from the favor it would curry with their lobbying interests, etc. The trump administration has simply given them a wide open window to push it through, even if it's not immediately useful. In the long run, given legislative trends, it will likely be harder to unwind any of these decisions, so they've "locked in" their gains, so to say. Look at the broader scope of anti-reserve legislation; many reserves are being shrunk in a manner that will lead exclusively to states selling off public land to private interests. There's 0 compelling public benefit from this other than deriving a small amount of revenue for the states in which they're located; (/s since the US is clearly lacking usable land, _of course_ the answer is to lay claim to some of the more precious unused land we have /s) ignoring even a potential decline of sport/tourism dollars. All of this seems like a bunch of maneuvering to trade American natural heritage for a small amount of political favor and economic benefit for handfuls of empowered/aligned entities.