Court: Drilling effects not weighed
ALBUQUERQUE – A federal appeals court has sided with environmentalists, ruling that the U.S. government failed to consider the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the approval of nearly 200 drilling permits in an area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Home to numerous sites significant to Native American tribes, the region has been a focal point of conflict over energy development that has spanned multiple presidential administrations. Now, environmentalists and some tribal leaders have accused the Biden administration of “rubber-stamping” more drilling.
In a ruling issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that federal land managers violated the law by not accounting for the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of air pollution from oil and gas drilling.
The court also put on hold the approval of additional drilling permits pending a decision from a lower court.
Kyle Tisdel, a senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, accused the Bureau of Land Management of prioritizing oil and gas extraction at
the expense of those who live in northwestern New Mexico, including many Navajo communities.
“Frontline Diné communities and their allies were vindicated today in a step toward environmental justice,” Tisdel said in a statement.
Environmentalists have long complained about pollution from increased drilling, but the fight took on new urgency when Native American tribes began raising concerns that a spider web of drill pads, roads, processing stations and other infrastructure was compromising culturally significant sites beyond Chaco park’s boundaries.
Now, the U.S. Interior Department is considering formalizing the 10-mile buffer around the park, putting off limits to future development of more than 507 square miles of federal mineral holdings.
As part of the effort, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland – a member of Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead a U.S. Cabinet agency – wants to create a system for including tribal perspectives and values when land management decisions are made.
She first detailed the steps her agency would be taking during a visit to Chaco park in November 2021. That process is ongoing.
Much of the land surrounding the park belongs to the Navajo Nation or is owned by individual Navajos. While the federal government’s planned 20-year withdrawal would not affect tribal lands, the Navajo Nation and allottees have expressed concerns about being landlocked and losing out on leasing revenue and royalties.