Yvon Chouinard Declines Congressional Invite to Testify

The House Committee on Natural Resources invited Yvon Chouinard to testify on public lands stewardship. Instead he sent this letter.

Response to the House Committee on Natural Resources
December 19, 2017

Rob Bishop
Chairman
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Natural Resources
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Bishop and the House Committee on Natural Resources,

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 American history. 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.

Sincerely,

Yvon Chouinard
Founder
Patagonia, Inc.

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View the original letter and review Patagonia’s 2017 Timeline of Events Related to the Protection of Bears Ears here.