Dear editor,
New Mexico state revenue from oil and natural gas production totaled $2.8 billion in FY20, accounting for 33.5 percent of total state spending, according to the NM Oil and Gas Association. NM was given drilling permits according to congressmen for a former congresswoman of NM Deb Haaland now Secretary of the Interior, Drilling On Federal Land Increases Despite Biden's Campaign Promise: NPR. Haaland, a member of Pueblo of Laguna, last year announced the government's intention to withdraw about 350,000 acres of public land from further mineral leasing for 20 years to protect Chaco Canyon. Navajo Nation Council Delegates want a 5-mile buffer around the Canyon, rather than a 10-mile buffer. Navajo residents fear income losses if the feds halt oil and gas leases near Chaco Canyon (yahoo.com).
Navajo residents who lease property to oil and gas companies asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene. They want the judges to reaffirm a lower court's dismissal of a case filed by environmental groups trying to stop fracking near Chaco Canyon. "I don't think the lawsuit had any merit at all," said Troy A. Eid of Greenberg Traurig LLP, who represents the tribe members, "This is not an area where someone is proposing resource development in a new fashion or new place. This is an area where the principal source of economic benefit to probably more than 20,000 families comes from oil and gas." We paying for high gas prices and the only people responsible is the current federal government administration you cannot keep blaming Putin, Covid-19, and the supply chain! This next election cycle is very important please VOTE. Call or go online to your county clerk, get your polling place or an absent tee ballot.
Signed,
Mr. Harry L. Hall USAF Veteran Retired Police/Sheriff Lt. 505-290-7599