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The move, which comes months after Obama banned drilling in millions of acres in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is the latest step in the Trump administration's attempt to roll back the former presidents environmental record and comes as Trump is rushing to stack his first 100 days with as many accomplishments as possible, primarily through the use of executive actions.

Trump, before signing the executive order at the White House, bluntly said the plan "reverses the previous administration's Arctic leasing ban."

"The federal government has kept 94% of these offshore areas closed for exploration and production, and when they say closed, they mean closed," Trump said, adding that Obama's actions "deprived our country of potentially thousands and thousands of jobs."

Trump's order charges the Interior Department to work with the Commerce Department to "streamline a permitting approach for privately funded seismic data research and collection," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Thursday; that data helps the department assess the level of natural resources under the sea.

In turn, the Commerce Department will conduct a review of designations and expansions of national marine sanctuaries within 180 days and of all designations and expansions under the Antiquities Act of 1906, a law that gives the President the power to designate land for federal protection.

The order is Trump's 30th in his first 99 days in office, meaning the President who once decried Obama's use of executive orders has signed more in the first 100 days than any president in the last 72 years, dating all the way back to former President Harry Truman.

Zinke said he believes that reducing regulations, in combination with the President's March 28 order on energy independence, will "put us on track for American energy independence."

Environmental groups blasted the order.

"With this executive order, the Trump administration is threatening the 1,100 miles of California coastline that the citizens of California own, and that we have fought to protect from special interests," said Tom Steyer, a top Democratic donor and the president of NextGen Climate, an environmental advocacy group. "Going back to a dirty energy model is a huge mistake, and that mistake becomes more obvious every day."

Zinke said Thursday that the review won't be limited to drilling for oil or natural gas, but will include an opening for wind energy development, too.

That did not assuage environmentalists.

"No matter how much money it spends or how many lobbyists it places inside the Trump administration, 'Big Oil' can never nor will never drown out the voices of millions of Americans across the country who spoke out against dangerous offshore drilling," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement.

Zinke said he has recently heard concerns about offshore drilling in Santa Barbara, California, and promised that he will listen to local communities when it comes to authorizing drilling.

"That's a commitment that the President made on the campaign, and another promise he's fulfilling," he said.

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Trump signs order looking to reverse Obama's ban on off-shore drilling - CNN

New York Times

Obama Accepts $400000 Fee for a Speech New York Times Out of office for about three months, Mr. Obama has begun the process of cashing in. In February, he and his wife, Michelle, each signed book deals worth tens of millions of dollars. And Mr. Obama's spokesman confirmed last week that he is beginning ... Obama to be paid $400000 for Cantor Fitzgerald speechCNBC 4 reasons Obama's $400000 Wall Street speech is a bad ideaWashington Post Barack Obama Is Said to Earn $400000 for an Upcoming SpeechFortune Slate Magazine -Fox News Insider -BBC News -Fox Business all 81 news articles »

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Obama Accepts $400000 Fee for a Speech - New York Times

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai speaks during an internet regulation event at the Newseum on April 26, 2017 in Washington. Eric Thayer / Getty Images

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The internet is now regulated under Title II, which was created in the 1930s to regulate the Ma Bell telephone monopoly. By applying these rules to internet service providers, the FCC has more authority to regulate the behavior of internet service providers, including helping to control what consumers are charged and ensuring there is no paid prioritization online, which would create so-called fast and slow lanes.

Among the four basic points are not blocking websites for certain users, no throttling (creating a fast and slow lane), fostering more transparency between consumers and ISPs, and finally, no paid prioritization to move to the front of the line.

That all may sound great, but Pai says it's not working. He wants to go back to the internet rules instituted in 1996 under President Clinton and a Republican Congress.

"The internet is the greatest free market success in history," Pai said. However, he believes the "heavy-handed" net neutrality rules were never needed, aren't helping people as intended, and are in fact doing the reverse.

He said the rules have led to reduced investment, which he said has cost 75,000 to 100,000 jobs such as laying cable and digging trenches to help bring high-speed internet access to rural and low income areas.

The current framework, he said, is actually "widening the digital divide," because companies are avoiding rural and low-income areas because it may seem like it's "not worth the time and money to deploy there."

As a result, he said, this also reduces competition.

"There is no question that the easiest path would be to do nothing," he said. "When we are saddled with FCC rules that will deny many Americans high speed access and jobs, doing nothing is nothing doing."

"We need rules that focusing growth and infrastructure investment," he said. "We are going to deliver."

The FCC will vote at a May 18 meeting whether to formally consider Pai's proposal. That will likely pass, at which point the commission will seek public comment.

Another vote, which could happen before the end of the year, would then decide whether Pai's proposal would take effect. But for now, you won't see any immediate changes.

"This will be the beginning of the discussion, not the end," Pai said.

NBC News is owned by Comcast, the nation's largest internet service provider.

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement, "We fully support reversal of Title II classification. We continue to strongly support a free and open internet and the preservation of modern, strong, and legally enforceable net neutrality protections."

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Unveils Plan to Kill Obama-Era Net Neutrality Rules - NBCNews.com

New York Times

How a Mural of Michelle Obama Became a Lesson on Exploitation New York Times Last Friday, the artist and urban planner Chris Devins completed a mural in Chicago of the former first lady Michelle Obama. The project was funded in part by a GoFundMe campaign that collected more than $11,000. The purpose of this mural is to give ... Man Behind Michelle Obama Mural Flap Says He'll Pay Artist For Her WorkDNAinfo Mural of Michelle Obama in Chicago Neighborhood Sparks Plagiarism DebateKTLA Chicago Urban Planner Gets Called Out For Not Crediting Artist Behind Michelle Obama PictureEssence.com all 9 news articles »

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How a Mural of Michelle Obama Became a Lesson on Exploitation - New York Times

The fierce debate over public land in the West is almost certain to intensify following President Trumps signing of an executive order Wednesday that could lead to the reduction or elimination of some national monuments.

The order, which Trump signed in a ceremony in the office of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, instructs Zinke to review monuments created by Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the power to limit use of public land for historic, cultural, scientific or other reasons.

In advance of the ceremony, Zinke said the order would apply only to monuments that are at least 100,000 acres, more than two dozen of which have been established since 1996.

In California, national monuments that fall within those parameters include Giant Sequoia, Carrizo Plain, Berryessa Snow Mountain, Mojave Trails and Sand to Snow. Elsewhere, places such as Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument and Canyons of the Ancients in Colorado also could be affected.

But it was clear Wednesday that tension over one national monument in particular had elevated the issue to Trumps attention: the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in the remote desert canyonlands of southern Utah, which was created by Obama at the very end of last year.

The designation of Bears Ears never should have happened, Trump said Wednesday, calling it part of this massive federal land grab thats gotten worse and worse and worse.

He said his order would end another egregious abuse of federal power and give that power back to the states and to the people where it belongs.

The Bears Ears designation prompted an angry backlash from elected officials in Utah, with opponents saying the federal government has put excessive restrictions on land that holds promise for oil and gas, mining and other potential development and the jobs it could create.

Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert and Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, all Republicans, attended the signing ceremony and were singled out by Trump. Hatch, the president said, would call me and call me and say, You got to do this.

With his order in place, Trump said, Tremendously positive things are going to happen on that incredible land, the likes of which there is nothing more beautiful anywhere in the world.

Yet any changes are sure to prompt a substantial legal fight.

The monuments have been widely praised by the outdoors industry, environmental groups and Native American tribes that have inhabited the area for thousands of years and consider many parts of it sacred all of whom were quick Tuesday to criticize the executive order.

An executive order that undermines national monuments is not only an attack on Americas heritage and history, its an attack on the millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars that depend on our parks, monuments, and other public land, Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, wrote in an email.

Rokala cited a study by the Outdoor Industry Assn. that found the outdoor economy generates nearly $900 billion in annual spending. Earlier this year, Patagonia, REI and other companies pressured the association to pull its annual trade show out of Salt Lake City in protest of Utah officials stance on protecting public lands.

Zinke, a Republican and former congressman from Montana whose nomination to the Interior post was opposed by most major environmental groups, said Tuesday in advance of the ceremony that the order requires him to issue recommendations to the president on whether to rescind, reduce or otherwise alter certain monuments. He could also recommend further review.

The order instructs him to submit a preliminary review within 45 days and a final one within 120. He said he would make a specific recommendation about Bears Ears by the 45-day deadline.

Zinke said the order was intended to give states and local communities a meaningful voice in the designation of monuments. He said elected officials and others told the administration that the monuments may have resulted in lost jobs, reduced wages, reduced public access.

Im not going to predispose what the outcome is going to be, he said.

This week, Trump is also expected to order a review of Obamas decision in December to permanently ban offshore drilling along broad parts of the Arctic and Atlantic coasts. That decision was sharply criticized by the oil and gas industry.

Both executive orders by Trump venture into complicated legal territory.

The Antiquities Act gives presidents power to set aside land, but it does not specifically state that they can reverse a monument designation. So far, no president has attempted to do so, though a few have reduced their size, most notably Woodrow Wilson, who sharply downsized what was then called Mt. Olympus National Monument and is now part of Olympic National Park in Washington state.

Robert Glicksman, a professor at George Washington University who specializes in environmental law, wrote in an email response Tuesday that reducing the size of a monument may be easier to justify than outright reversals of monument designations but that even then, there could be issues as to the rationale for making monuments smaller.

Glicksman said he was not aware of any court rulings on the question.

The rarely used Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 employed by Obama to ban offshore drilling is similarly spare in its language and legal history. The act says the president may, from time to time, withdraw federal waters from oil and gas development that are not already leased. It does not specify whether another president can reverse a withdrawal.

Congressional action or a court ruling could clarify both questions.

Christy Goldfuss, who served as managing director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under Obama and helped shepherd Bears Ears to become a national monument, called the Trump orders a thinly veiled attempt to appease industry and sell off our national parks, public lands, oceans and cultural heritage to the highest bidder.

Goldfuss, who is now vice president for energy and environment policy for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said Trump is entering a legal, political and moral minefield.

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Trump signs order to reconsider national monuments created by Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton - Los Angeles Times