US Interior Sec. David L. Bernhardt agreed to defer oil and gas leasing near Chaco Canyon in New Mexico following a visit with tribal leaders in the area, US Sen. Martin T. Heinrich (D-NM) reported.
This will give the US Bureau of Land Management time to draft a new resource management plan and Congress time to consider the bill he and Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced on Apr. 9 to withdraw federal lands around Chaco Canyon from further mineral development, Heinrich said.
He said Bernhardt agreed to put any leasing within 10 miles of the park on hold for a year.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.
