Virtual meetings set for drilling plan near national park

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Virtual meetings set for drilling plan near national park
Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Updated 4:27 pm CDT, Thursday, April 30, 2020



Photo: Eric Draper, AP
IMAGE 1 OF 5
FILE - In this Nov. 21, 1996, file photo, tourists cast their shadows on the ancient Anasazi ruins of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. Lawmakers from the country's largest American Indian reservation may have thrown a wrinkle into efforts aimed at establishing a permanent buffer around the national park as New Mexico's congressional delegation, environmentalists and other tribes try to keep oil and gas development from getting closer to the World Heritage site. Navajo Nation delegates voted Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, to support a buffer only half the size of the one proposed in legislation pending in Congress



ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal land managers plan to hold a series of virtual meetings on a contested plan that will guide for at least the next decade oil and gas development around a national park and other areas in northwestern New Mexico that are revered by Native American tribes.

A World Heritage site, Chaco Culture National Historical Park and its collection of massive stacked stone walls and circular ceremonial subterranean rooms called kivas have been at the center of a decades-long fight over drilling in northwestern New Mexico. Historians say the area contains the remnants of what was once a hub of indigenous civilization that aligned its structures with the seasonal movements of the sun and moon.

. . .

Environmentalists, some Native American tribes and members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have asked for the agency to extend the public comment period on the proposed changes to the resource management plan. They say federal officials should wait until the coronavirus outbreak subsides so the public has more opportunity to participate in the process.

. . .

U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat and vice chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, is concerned about the disenfranchisement of people who lack internet access in what is a rural part of New Mexico. She called the virtual meetings unworkable for families that will be affected by the decision.







Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Virtual-meetings-set-for-drilling-plan-near-15237242.php

[ffr]

1. You mean to drill for fossil fuel reserves that are oil companies are paying people to take?

Wow, that's an unusual business model. They have to pay someone to take deliver of their product, one subsidized by our government to produce.

What a racket!

[AllaN01Bear]

2. pushing drill baby drill down our throats again , eh?

[turbinetree]

3. They, Oil, cannot sell what they got now and into the future................

fucking vulture capitalists................

[maxsolomon]

4. There are clear-cuts up to the border of Olympic, N. Cascades, and Mt. Rainier NPs.

Any "buffer" at all would be an improvement over past practice.

[Bayard]

5. Why does everything in the natural world have to be sacrificed on the alter of development?

This area has great historical and cultural significance, as do so many other sites in this country. Add thousands of animal species and plants.

Just leave them the hell alone, ya greedy bastids!

I had not even heard we should be weighing in on this situation.