Obama Administration Pulls Plans for Fracking near Chaco Canyon

Oil and Gas Lease Auction Deferred Over Inadequate Tribal Consultation, Failure to Address Impacts of Fracking

Farmington, N.M--WildEarth Guardians applauded the Obama Administration’s decision today to cancel plans to auction off more than 2,000 acres of publicly owned oil and gas leases for fracking near Chaco Canyon National Historical Park.

“When it comes to drilling near Chaco Canyon, WildEarth Guardians has for years been telling the government in every way we can think of that they are not listening to local Navajo residents and that they have been ignoring threats of fracking to air, water, and our climate,” said Tim Ream, Climate and Energy Campaign Director. “We think it is obvious that once they listen to the Navajo community and honestly look at the problems of fracking, they will cancel these public lands oil and gas auctions for good.”

In canceling an oil and gas lease sale planned for October 19, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management pointed to its failure to consult with Tribal authorities and to prepare an adequate environmental analysis of the impacts of more fracking. WildEarth Guardians joined a broad coalition of groups earlier this year in calling on the agency to abandon its plans.

The Bureau of Land Management itself has acknowledged that it has no plan in place to protect the Greater Chaco Region from fracking. Spanning 4,600 square miles, the region was once the heart of the Ancestral Puebloan civilization and today is the home of Navajo, modern-day Pueblo, and many other indigenous communities.

Today’s announcement follows a pattern of oil and gas lease sale cancellations in response to Keep It in the Ground movement protests. Since protests began in November 2015, public lands oil and gas auctions have been canceled or postponed in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington D.C.

Photos of hundreds protesting the April 20, 2016 oil and gas lease sale in Santa Fe, NM are available here.

The Keep It in the Ground movement seeks to confront the fact that 10% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from oil and gas produced from public lands and waters. The movement seeks to put a halt to new leasing to stem the release of carbon.

While today’s news is welcome, the Greater Chaco region remains at risk. WildEarth Guardians and its allies have sued to stop fracking in the Greater Chaco region. That lawsuit is awaiting decision from a federal appeals court. A similar lawsuit to stop oil and gas leases in the Santa Fe National Forest was recently filed in federal court in New Mexico.

In January, WildEarth Guardians called on President Obama to cancel all oil and gas lease sales until climate change and other environmental issues of the federal oil and gas program have been adequately studied.


 

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