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The Biden administration is hosting a series of meetings this week with Native American leaders about a proposal to prohibit new oil and gas development in northwest New Mexico near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a World Heritage site that is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization.
The meetings are part of the Interior Department's public outreach activities as it considers withdrawing 550 square miles near the park from mineral development for 20 years. During a virtual briefing, top officials with the All Pueblo Council of Governors said they would reiterate their support for the proposal during the tribal consultation process.
Randall Vicente, the governor of Acoma Pueblo, said tribes are ready to band together to ensure more permanent protections are adopted for lands outside park boundaries that contain the remnants of stone dwellings, ceremonial kivas, pottery sherds, petroglyphs, shrines, and other cultural resources. "Together, this area is one irreplaceable, sacred, interconnected landscape unlike any other. We remain tied to those resources, not only because they represent the footprints and fingerprints of our ancestors, we rely on them on this day as Acoma people," Vicente said.
The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on the withdrawal proposal until May 6.
30x30 opponents misunderstand NEPA
Opponents of the Biden administration's America the Beautiful plan are advocating for a new tactic of using the nation's bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to delay progress toward reaching the 30x30 goal. At the Stop 30x30 Summit in Lincoln, Nebraska last week, Margaret Byfield with the American Stewards of Liberty said, “What we are calling for is that President Biden needs to instruct agencies to implement immediately a programmatic environmental impact statement on 30×30.” But there's a catch: NEPA doesn't apply to broad aspirational goals like 30x30, it applies to assessing the environmental impacts of specific projects. Not only that, a Council on Environmental Quality publication released in the waning days of the Trump administration, “A Citizens Guide to NEPA," states “NEPA does not apply to the President.”
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With land valuations being what they are, it's getting more and more difficult for working farms and ranches to remain profitable. Private land conservation is seeing a boom because people are really concerned about land conversion from working lands into development.”
