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An oil drilling rig just south of Carlsbad in 2019. The Biden administration has paused all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands as the Interior Department analyzes the program’s impact on the environment. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As a public comment period on the federal mineral leasing program draws to a close today, environmental and Indigenous groups in New Mexico’s oil and gas-producing communities are seeking a complete overhaul of the system.
Julia Bernal, a Sandia Pueblo member and Pueblo Action Alliance director, said during a panel discussion Wednesday that previous administrations had “gone off the rails” in leasing on culturally significant areas near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.