Mining executives bought stock in their own firm days before Trump shrank Bears Ears

Congressional Democrats have opened an investigation into Energy Fuels, a mining company whose top executives bought large amounts of company stock just days before President Trump shrank Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by 90 percent. CEO Ross Bhappu bought 74,000 shares on July 7, 2026, the largest insider purchase in the company's history, and board chair Bruce Hansen bought 4,000 shares the next day. Less than a week later, Trump removed 1.24 million acres from the monument, opening the land to mining again.

Energy Fuels runs White Mesa Mill, the country's last conventional uranium processing site, located about a mile from the monument's old boundary. Lawmakers say the new boundaries could benefit the company and are demanding its communications with federal officials and its lobbying contracts. The company denies wrongdoing, saying it holds no claims inside the monument and hasn't lobbied for the change. This isn't the first time Energy Fuels has pushed for smaller monument boundaries — it lobbied for similar cuts under the first Trump administration in 2017.

For homeowners, this story doesn't affect any rebate or upgrade program directly. It's part of a broader federal push to expand domestic mining of uranium and rare earth minerals, materials used in some clean-energy technology and defense products. The Trump administration recently gave Energy Fuels a $725 million loan for rare earth development and separately announced $3 billion for critical mineral mining and battery projects, moves worth watching if you follow how mineral supply chains affect battery and clean-energy costs.