The Trump administration is moving forward on a proposal to allow oil and gas drilling on hundreds of thousands of acres of federal land that surround Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a sacred area for many southwestern Native American people.
The Bureau of Land Management has begun a formal consultation with Native American tribes as it considers undoing a Biden-era order that prohibited new oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile buffer area around the park in northwestern New Mexico. BLM made its announcement in a letter to tribal groups last Thursday, which was obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The move to revoke former President Joe Biden’s 2023 order comes as the Trump administration seeks to increase oil and gas production. Removing the 10-mile buffer area was listed as a priority in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, widely viewed as a blueprint for the White House.
New Mexico’s Democratic congressional delegation condemned the announcement, which was reported earlier by the Associated Press.
