WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Groups Call for Fracking Moratorium in Four Corners

Feds Approving Oil Drilling at Expense of Public Health, Cultural Treasures, Safe Climate
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

Additional Contacts:

Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator, San Juan Citizens Alliance, (505) 325-6724, mike@sanjuancitizens.org

Kyle Tisdel, Climate and Energy Program Director, Western Environmental Law Center, (575) 613-8050, tisdel@westernlaw.org

Santa, Fe, NM—A coalition of local and regional watchdog groups late yesterday demanded the U.S. Bureau of Land Management put the brakes on fracking in northwestern New Mexico until the agency can safeguard the climate, clean air and water, and the region’s cultural heritage.

“While the fracking industry’s profits are soaring, the public is losing its clean air, pure water, and progress toward a safe climate,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “It’s time for the Bureau of Land Management to stop selling out our public lands to the fossil fuel industry and start protecting America’s backyard.”

In a letter to the Bureau of Land Management New Mexico State Director, WildEarth Guardians, San Juan Citizens Alliance, the Chaco Alliance, and the Western Environmental Law Center called out the agency for illegally authorizing a surge of new fracking in the Farmington Field Office.  While acknowledging it has never analyzed how this development will impact the environment, the agency is continuing to rubberstamp more fracking.

“The Bureau of Land Management is recklessly leaping before looking, turning its back on our public lands in favor of industry,” said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator for the San Juan Citizens Alliance.  “With all signs that fracking is costing us dearly, it’s time to put the brakes on this disaster.”

The fracking approvals have come as industry has pressured the agency to open up more public lands to exploit oil from the Mancos shale using horizontal drilling.  All told, nearly 100 new drilling permits have been approved in the last two years, primarily in the area where San Juan, Rio Arriba, and Sandoval Counties meet.  Dozens, if not hundreds, more permits are awaiting approval.  In addition, the agency has failed to defer the sale of additional leases, having just held an oil and gas lease sale on the Santa Fe National Forest, which rests on the eastern edge of the Mancos shale formation, and proposed another lease sale for January 2015.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the heart of the Ancestral Puebloan civilization, is increasingly being encroached upon by this fracking.  A map prepared by WildEarth Guardians shows that new wells have been drilled within 20 miles of the park, pushing onto lands that have never before seen oil development.

This fracking is also unleashing massive amounts of carbon pollution despite a recent study from NASA finding that the Four Corners region has the highest amount of methane emissions in the nation due to extensive fossil fuel development.  Methane is not only a valuable product that is being wasted, it’s a potent greenhouse gas that creates 86 times more warming than carbon dioxide.

“BLM should take action to clean up the vast methane waste in the San Juan Basin before it approves yet more drilling that will only contribute further to global warming and the serious harm that a changing climate poses to the people, lands, and waters of New Mexico,” said Kyle Tisdel, Climate and Energy Program Director at the Western Environmental Law Center.

Recent pictures of flaring at fracking sites in the region attest to the amount of methane being wasted.

The groups cited the Bureau of Land Management’s own statements that its current management plan for the Farmington Field Office is outdated.  Finalized more than 10 years ago, the plan described horizontal drilling and fracking as “technically” and “economically” infeasible.  The agency announced in February that it intends to revise its management plan to address the impacts of fracking.  Until that work is complete, the groups are demanding a moratorium on new oil and gas leases and drilling permits.

Click here to view additional pictures of fracking in the Four Corners region >>