Chaco Canyon another step closer to protection from oil and gas

When now Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was the US Representative for New Mexico's First District she was one of the sponsors of the Chaco Culture Heritage Protection Act of 2019 that would have codified the 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Canyon. 

Santa Fe-based Wild Earth Guardians joined other interested parties in suing the Trump Organization's Bureau of Land Management to stop oil and gas encroachment on Chaco Culture National Historic Park. New Mexico's congressional delegation celebrated the US House passage of then US Representative for New Mexico's Third District now Senator Ben Ray Lujan's amendment to halt drilling on public lands near the monument but the bill did not make it through Mitch McConnell's Earth hater controlled Senate. 

Now New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich has asked Sec. Haaland to end leasing within a 10-mile radius of the park. Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo just one of New Mexico's Indigenous Nations who consider the Greater Chaco Wash as sacred. Chaco is an International Dark Sky Park at risk to oil and gas flaring. In partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs the BLM completed a draft resource management plan amendment last year but a decision has yet to be released. 

The BLM, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service and at least 15 other federal agencies also suffered hits to morale from the Trump White House.

The seat vacated by Haaland is expected to stay in Democratic control where Melanie Stansbury has a massive lead in early voting.

ip photo.