Republican vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney said yesterday that President Clinton had used his executive authority “willy-nilly all over the West” to create too many national monuments, and that some of Clinton’s designations would likely be rescinded under a GOP administration. Clinton has created or added to 10 national monuments, setting aside almost 4 million acres in the West from development. A national monument designation has never been rescinded in the years since the law granting the president the power of designation was passed in 1906. Cheney, who just retired from his position as CEO of Halliburton Co., a giant oil services company, also spoke about the possibility of drilling for oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska using new techniques that would leave “minimal environmental footprints.”
