7/27/20

NM delegation celebrates moratorium on drilling near Chaco


When the people of the Chaco Wash were building in what is now northwestern New Mexico the ancestors of the Lakota were living in post-archaic North Carolina.

After Santa Fe-based Wild Earth Guardians joined other interested parties in suing the Bureau of Land Management to stop oil and gas encroachment on Chaco Culture National Historic Park New Mexico's congressional delegation is celebrating the US House passage of Representative Ben Ray Lujan's amendment to halt drilling on public lands near the monument.
“Chaco Canyon is one of the places of greatest historical and cultural significance in our state, and New Mexicans understand the importance of protecting it for generations to come. I am proud to have secured this one-year moratorium on oil and gas drilling on federal lands at this sacred site, and I will continue laying the groundwork for permanent protection of Chaco,” Luján said. The members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have been stalwart advocates for protecting Chaco Canyon. Last year, they introduced the Chaco Cultural Heritage Protection Act, which would withdraw 316,076 acres of minerals owned by the federal government from future leasing and development located within the Proposed Chaco Protection Zone, an approximately 10-mile protected radius around Chaco. The legislation passed the House with bipartisan support last October. [Los Alamos Daily Post]
ip photo.

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