Yesterday, Native groups and allies working to stop fracking in New Mexico’s Greater Chaco region hand-delivered a letter to Bureau of Land Management officials at the Farmington Resource Advisory Council Meeting (RAC). The letter requests the agency amend its plans to continue drilling and leasing lands in Greater Chaco for oil and gas development.
The BLM is currently updating its Resource Management Plan for Greater Chaco, which will ultimately determine which lands are open for oil and gas development. On January 24, the agency published a proposed outline for the Resource Management Plan, which ignores Tribal concerns and fails to protect the landscape, its culture, and its air and water from the fracking industry.
Even in the absence of a Resource Management Plan, the BLM has continued to drill wells and auction more lands in Greater Chaco for fracking. A lawsuit currently stands asserting that drilling without a plan is illegal. The Navajo Nation, All Pueblo Council of Governors, National Congress of American Indians, 15 Navajo Chapter Houses, the New Mexico House Legislature, and more than 300,000 citizens have also requested a moratorium on drilling until the amendment is complete.
Read the press release.
