Outdoor apparel maker Patagonia is suing Donald Trump over his decision to slash the size of the Bears Ears National Monument. Patagonia is also not taking any smarmy nonsense from the House Committee on Natural Resources, which recently invited Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard to testify at a committee hearing, because “It is apparent through multiple media accounts and appearances that you have strong feelings on the topic.” Chouinard fired back a letter:
I find it disingenuous that after unethically using taxpayers’ resources to call us liars, you would ask me to testify in front of a committee for a matter already decided by the administration and applauded by the Utah delegation just a week ago. A macabre celebration of the largest reduction in public lands in a century. It is clear the House Committee on Natural Resources, like many committees in this failed Orwellian government, is shackled to special interests of oil, gas, and mining and will seek to sell off our public lands at every turn and continue to weaken and denigrate Theodore Roosevelt’s Antiquities Act, which has preserved our treasured public lands for over 100 years.
The American people made it clear in public comments that they want to keep the monuments intact, but they were ignored by Secretary Zinke, your committee, and the administration. We have little hope that you are working in good faith with this invitation. Our positions are clear and public, and we encourage you to read them.
As rejected congressional invitations go, that’s fairly strong.