Biden Administration Bans Drilling Around Native American Cultural Site
The news
The Biden administration took action Friday to block new oil and gas leases on federal land around New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, one of the country’s oldest and most culturally significant Native American sites. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced that her agency would block public lands within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Canyon and the area around it, known as Chaco Culture National Historical Park, from accessing new oil and gas leases for 20 years. a 2021 pledge from President Biden to protect the area from drilling. The move will not affect existing oil and gas land leases or drilling on private property within a 10-mile radius.
The plan of Mrs. Haaland, the first Indian cabinet secretary, came about after decades of tribal requests. It is intended to underscore President Biden’s efforts to focus on Native American issues and expand the preservation of public lands. But it has also drawn opposition from Republicans and New Mexico’s oil and gas industry. The announcement comes during a week in which environmentalists have been outraged by the Biden administration’s decision to expedite a 300-mile natural gas pipeline in West Virginia as part of the deal to raise the debt ceiling.
Why it matters
An area of about 30,000 acres in the high desert plateaus of northwestern New Mexico, Chaco Canyon Park was established in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is home to an extensive network of pre-Columbian ruins. Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, the area was a center of Pueblo culture, with multiple settlements of multistory homes and sacred sites. But for the past decade, Pueblo and other Indigenous groups have worried that oil and gas projects were threatening the park.
While Congress has enacted some short-term drilling bans around the park, there is no long-term or permanent policy to block drilling at the edges.
“Today marks an important step in fulfilling President Biden’s commitments to Indian Country by protecting Chaco Canyon, a sacred site that holds deep meaning to the indigenous peoples whose ancestors have called this place home since time immemorial,” he said. Mrs Haaland in a statement.
This year Mr. Biden a new national monument, Spirit Mountain, in Nevada, which isolates half a million acres of development revered by Native Americans. He also restored and expanded protections for Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, places sacred to Native Americans that had been opened up to mining and drilling by the Trump administration.
Background
The Bureau of Land Management has not issued an oil and gas lease within the 10-mile buffer around Chaco Canyon in about 10 years, and New Mexico stopped mineral leasing around Chaco Canyon through a state-level moratorium in 2019. A federal moratorium on new mining claims have been in effect since January 2022, when the Department of the Interior published a notice of the proposed withdrawal in the Federal Register. The proposal was open to a 120-day public comment period, which included six public meetings and generated more than 110,000 oral and written comments. That input, along with consultations with 24 tribal nations, helped shape the final plan, the agency said.
What’s next
Oil and gas drilling is an important part of New Mexico’s economy. When Mr. Biden announced his plans to protect the Chaco Canyon area, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association called the move “arbitrary” and said it would limit economic opportunities in that part of the state, potentially for generations long. come. It’s unclear if the industry will try to challenge the new protections.