Koch brothers said to be funding plan to block Grand Canyon conservation

Source: The Guardian

Koch brothers said to be funding plan to block Grand Canyon conservation

Tax forms reveal donor from their network channeled money into
Arizona-based group fighting plan that would ban uranium mining
around the landmark

Griselda Nevarez in Phoenix
Thursday 21 April 2016 01.28 BST

Billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch are channeling money into an Arizona-based organization that’s fighting a plan that would include a permanent ban on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.

A proposal to declare the area around the Grand Canyon a national monument – Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument – calls for protecting 1.7m acres of land from uranium mining. A number of environmental groups and native tribes as well as the vast majority of Arizonans support the plan.

Still, a handful of Arizona Republicans and a major not-for-profit group are trying to block it. Much of the group’s efforts apparently are being funded by the Koch brothers, according to Greg Zimmerman of the Center for Western Priorities.

Zimmerman told the Phoenix New Times he became suspicious about the Koch brothers’ involvement with the anti-Grand Canyon national monument movement after reading a recent report co-authored by the Arizona Chamber Foundation and another Arizona-based group called the Prosper Foundation. The report referred to the plan as a “monumental mistake”

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/20/koch-brothers-grand-canyon-national-monument-plan-uranium