National Monument Reduction Was An Inside Job

Democrats in the House of Representatives are launching an investigation into whether two American executives at Canadian mining firm Energy Fuels engaged in insider trading in the days before the July 13 announcement that Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase National Monuments would have their boundaries reduced by over 90 percent. The allegations include a claim that a massive $725 million loan from the Department of Defense announced in June may also have been prefaced on foreknowledge of the decision.

“We write regarding concerns about potential insider trading at Energy Fuels, Inc,” Begins a letter addressed to Energy Fuels President and CEO Ross Bhappu from Representatives Jared Huffman and Maxine Dexter. “Days before the Trump administration’s announcement to shrink the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument, you and the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Bruce Hansen, purchased a significant amount of company stock. We understand that monument boundaries were redrawn in a way that could benefit Energy Fuels and that your stock purchase was the largest insider stock purchase in the company’s history. We are opening an investigation.”

Huffman (D-California) is the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. Dexter (D-Oregon) is the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Energy Fuels is a massive Canadian mining conglomerate with a headquarters based in Denver. Its stock is traded on both the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange.

Energy Fuels has operated mining and related operations in the area of Bears Ears since 1980. It has been lobbying to have the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument reduced since 2017.

President Obama established Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, protecting 1.35-million acres of BLM land, while preserving historic uses and public access. The monument declaration did not include the property where Energy Fuels operates its facility—White Mesa Mill—but the company still wrote to the Trump administration complaining that the monument, “could affect existing and future mill operations.”

“There are also many other known uranium and vanadium deposits located within the [Bears Ears boundaries] that could provide valuable energy and mineral resources in the future,” that letter continued. It was sent to the Trump administration in May, 2017, just three months after the inauguration.

Energy Mills retained a team of lobbyists from top D.C. firm Faegre Baker Daniels which was led by Andrew Wheeler, who was then awaiting confirmation as the Environmental Protection Agency’s deputy secretary. Then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced his plan to review the boundaries of the monument that June, and Energy Fuels and its lobbyists began meeting with Zinke in July. During one of those meetings, Energy Fuels “proposed small boundary adjustments,” according to The Durango Herald. Zinke made his recommendation for the final boundaries to the president in August, and Trump made his first proclamation shrinking Bears Ears in December. The new boundaries contained the carve outs Energy Fuels asked for.

In 2021, President Biden reversed Trump’s reduction of the two monuments. White Mesa Mills remained outside the monument’s boundaries.

Upon Trump’s second inauguration, Energy Fuels retained a team of lobbyists at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck that included Zinke’s former logistics manager, Aaron Thiele.

In its February, 2026 annual report, Energy Fuels wrote, “... on October 8, 2021, President Biden issued a new proclamation restoring the original borders of Bears Ears National Monument... It is possible that the Mill could become subject to additional requirements, restrictions and costs if the reversion to the original designation is upheld in Court, pending any legal challenges by the State of Utah or otherwise.”

On June 18, 2026 the Department of Defense announced that it was granting Energy Fuels a $725 million loan—at the time the largest yet issued by the Office of Strategic Capital—in order, “to scale the company’s domestic processing of rare earth elements. Together, the OSC investment and additional private capital are intended to support a new, state-of-the-art, U.S.-based rare earth separation and metallization facility.”

According to Huffman and Dexter, Energy Fuels CEO Bhappu purchased 74,000 shares of the company on July 7, which increased his ownership stake by 41 percent and is, “the largest insider purchase of stock in the company’s history,” according to the letter. Hansen, the company’s chairman, bought 4,000 shares the next day.

Just five days after Bhappu’s unprecedented stock purchase, on July 13, Trump announced that he was again shrinking Bears Ears, this time even more severely than the first.

Trump’s latest reduction of Bears Ears specifically opens two new areas to uranium mining—White Canyon and Elk Ridge. “Ore mined there would be trucked to White Mesa, the only conventional uranium mill operating in the country,” according to the House Natural Resources Committee.

The following day, on July 14, Energy Fuels published a business plan which, according to Huffman and Dexter, “specifically identified strong government support as a selling point for your investors in expansion plans. When your company described its expansion plans, it cited ongoing discussions with government sources as a means to close the financing gap. This demonstrates close coordination and communication with the Trump administration, which may have enabled you to receive privileged information about when the Bears Ears announcement would occur.”

On July 29, Energy Fuels announced it had begun construction on a $104 million expansion of the White Mesa Mills facility.

“Energy Fuels expects government grants and loans to cover much of the expansion cost,” writes ColoradoBiz.

The problem with White Mesa isn’t just in its corruption, there’s also concerns about around the radioactive pollution that threatens both local Indigenous communities and the area’s water supply.

“White Mesa Mill has become a radioactive dumping ground, taking in waste from Superfund sites, the Manhattan Project, and even foreign countries, all while storing more than 700 million pounds of toxic material in outdated, single-liner pits that threaten nearby tribal communities and groundwater,” write Huffman and Dexter. “Americans are rightfully outraged that spills have occurred along a school bus route and that the mill continues emitting radon and other dangerous pollutants linked to lung cancer, all without modern safeguards or meaningful transparency.”

“Energy Fuels cannot credibly claim to be a responsible operator while the nation’s last uranium mill functions like an unregulated, bargain-bin waste dump on the doorstep of an Indigenous community,” write the legislators. “Instead of respecting the Tribes for whom Bears Ears is sacred, you appear to be enriching yourself from their devastation.”

Huffman and Dexter are requesting that Energy Fuels deliver to them all record of communication between the company and its lobbyists, government officials, executive calendars, and its internal revenue predictions related to the monument reduction no later than August 24.

“Trump’s obsession with gutting Bears Ears National Monument has always been about selling off our outdoor heritage to connected extractive corporations looking to exploit our public lands for a quick buck,” says Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill.

Top photo: Bruce Hucko

A journalist with more than two decades of experience working around the world, Wes Siler is here to cut through the outrage and disinformation to bring you the factual, insightful, actionable reporting you need to understand what’s going on. Upgrading to a paid subscription supports this reporting, and buys personal access to Wes, who will help you save money on gear, plan outdoor adventures, and prepare for real life, and who promises he’s less salty in real life than he sometimes comes across as on the Internet.