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A top Democrat on Tuesday stepped up criticism of the Trump administration's review of 27 national monuments by releasing a report charging that the process is being guided by the oil and coal industries instead of public interest.

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raul Grijalva of Arizona released the report, "Fossil Apostles: Fossil Fuels, the GOP, and the Fate of Our National Monuments," which details the "strong influence" of industry over the monument review process that is slated to wrap up this week. The process could result in recommendations to take the "national monument" designation away from some sites around the country.

The report attempts to show how the review process is unpopular among the public that it purports to give a voice to, and argued the process should be scrapped.

"The public has spoken and these monuments should be left alone," Grijalva said upon releasing the report. "If President Trump and Secretary [of the Interior Ryan] Zinke don't listen, then the courts and the voters will teach them that our public lands are not industry playthings to dispose of as they see fit."

"This administration cries about the importance of history when it comes to Confederate statues and then throws Teddy Roosevelt's legacy out the window as a favor to Big Oil," he added.

President Trump signed an executive order this year directing Zinke to begin a review of monuments that had been modified over the past 20 years by prior presidential directives.

The review included the Bears Ears monument in Utah that former President Barack Obama significantly expanded. Zinke and the administration have argued that the review is necessary to ensure that no group was left out in the decision-making process to expand the monuments.

In many cases, the expanded monuments have come with expanded restrictions on certain activities, such as extraction of fossil fuels and other mineral resources.

"This report demonstrates that the justification provided for the review a desire for robust public input is a diversion meant to obscure the review's true aim: the development by private companies of fossil fuel resources currently off-limits due to monument designations," according to the executive summary of Grijalva's report.

The report documented "extensive Republican efforts to undermine or eliminate public review of federal land management decisions, in direct contravention of the monument review's stated goal," the summary added. "The report goes on to show the enormous influence the fossil fuel industry has over the Trump administration and their congressional allies, as well as the expansive benefits already provided to that industry this year. Finally, the report describes the relatively small amount of fossil fuel resources placed off-limits by the monument designations under review."

The report pointed out that public polling shows a lack of overall support for weakening the monument designations. Across seven western states, public polling has shown that the "greatest support for weakening national monument protections is in Utah, where 60 percent oppose the idea and 30 percent support it," according to Grijalva's office.

The report argued that in addition to being unpopular, weakening the monument designations does not make much economic sense.

"Oil and coal companies are already awash in access to public land," the report reads. "According to a detailed review of Resource Management Plans, the oil and gas industry already has access to 90 percent of the public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that manages the most federal land."

"In fact, oil companies are not bothering to produce oil and gas on the public land they have already leased," it continued. "Fifty-three percent of public land acreage that has been leased to oil and gas companies across the U.S. is not in production as of fiscal year 2016. In Utah, that number is 61 percent. In addition, oil and gas companies are hoarding nearly 8,000 approved drilling permits that they are not using."

Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, which the report criticized for supporting the review, is holding a press call on Thursday to discuss the monument review as it comes to an end. He has been supportive of rolling back the monument designation at Bears Ears and others.

Meanwhile, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is pouring money into a campaign meant to malign members of Congress for being "anti-public lands," the pro-market Western Wire reported.

It noted that the League of Conservation Voters began calling on the public to put pressure on "anti-parks politicians," and said the future of several national monuments would be determined by Zinke's review.

"With the futures of Organ-Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument and Rio Grande del Norte National Monument on the line, the League of Conservation Voters is investing $100,000 in a final push to urge Congressman Steve Pearce and other members of Congress to stop attacking our public lands and to ensure the Trump administration hears the overwhelming outpouring of support for our national monuments ahead of the August 24th deadline for its unprecedented monument review,'" the group wrote in a press release targeting Pearce, a Republican from New Mexico.

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Democrat: Trump wants to turn national monuments into 'industry playthings' - Washington Examiner