.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Last week, President Biden delivered on his promises to put a temporary pause on new oil and gas leasing on public lands. This is a common-sense move after the previous four years of giveaways to the oil and gas industry, a spree which included almost 300,000 acres of publicly-owned land in New Mexico. This move will give communities and parks breathing room to work together to figure out the best way forward. Predictably, however, this move has caused no shortage on false outrage from the oil and gas industry. Fresh from an election campaign in which New Mexicans were warned of a mythical “ban on fracking,” oil and gas executives now have the job of trying to make President Biden’s decision to merely pause the four-year cut-price fire sale of public land to polluters sound like the doomsday scenario they have cried wolf about.