A coalition of New Mexico Indigenous, community, and conservation groups submitted scoping comments today opposing the Trump administration’s process to re-evaluate a 10-mile buffer surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park where new oil and gas and other mineral leasing is off limits. Reopening these areas to new leasing could intensify the oil and gas assault on this culturally and historically significant area. The larger “Greater Chaco” region surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage Site is already more than 90% leased for oil and gas extraction. The groups also oppose the administration’s decision to provide only a seven-day comment period over the Easter holiday and feast days for many Pueblos.
Chaco’s cultural resources extend well beyond the boundaries of the park and the buffer. The local communities here suffer intensively from the ongoing impacts of oil and gas extraction, with poor air quality, heavy truck traffic, and serious harmful health effects. The federal government under Trump, instead of addressing its responsibility to address and rectify a the long-term exploitation of living Native communities in Greater Chaco as well as the irreplaceable cultural resources that make the area the heart of the Southwest, is insisting on continuing to exploit what little area remains undisturbed by this vast landscape-scale oil and gas industrialization.
“For many decades, the Bureau of Land Management-Farmington has devastated the Eastern Checkerboard region’s health and economic standing. Protecting the 10-mile buffer zone is our best option now to protect our sacred sites, health and precious water systems,” said Cheyenne Antonio, energy organizer at Diné C.A.R.E. “We’ve seen this push for leases before, promising millions of dollars, but look at our community: no hospitals, no law enforcement, no human resources. What economic benefit do we have as frontline communities? What plan is in place for our frontline communities to have clean water, clean air and clean soil for the next decade? None. I strongly oppose the revocation of the mineral withdrawal and demand full protection for my local checkerboard Diné communities and sacred sites.”
“The Trump administration is trying to undo years of collaborative work in a matter of days,” said Rose Rushing, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “The Honoring Chaco process took two and a half years, involved dozens of Tribal Nations, and included a 120-day public comment period — now the administration wants to reverse all of that through a seven-day online-only scoping window that opened on a Tuesday and closes on a Monday, and includes holy days for several New Mexico communities, including Pueblo feast days. We believe this is less of a meaningful public comment process than it is a procedural formality designed to foreclose real public participation. We believe this process fails to comply with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act’s hard-look obligations, and we know that the public will be prepared to challenge the administration’s process and enforce our right to meaningful participation.”
“In submitting scoping comments, it is clear that any legitimate analysis would recognize the values of protecting Chaco,” said Mike Eisenfeld, energy and climate program director at San Juan Citizens Alliance. “In fact, the Bureau of Land Management dropped its resource management planning amendment/environmental impact statement (2014-2024) in 2024 after acknowledging ‘reduced interest in oil and gas development in the San Juan Basin.’ The Greater Chaco Area has already seen significant impacts from oil and gas development that have never been adequately analyzed and commitments for protection are being compromised.”
“As fellow frontliners in the Permian Basin, we stand in solidarity with communities in the San Juan Basin fighting this rollback of hard-won protections for Greater Chaco,” said Haley Jones, organizer at Citizens Caring for the Future. “The short public comment period is an insult to the communities impacted by this proposal. Instead of a rollback, we should be permanently protecting Greater Chaco for future generations and accounting for the health impacts of oil & gas extraction to frontline communities.”
“For years, advocates and impacted community members have called on federal agencies to protect the cultural integrity of the Greater Chaco landscape and community well-being from fracking,” said Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter. “Now, under a second Trump administration that is blatantly calling for public lands to be sold off for corporate polluter interests and turn back the clock on climate action, it’s urgent that we permanently protect this sacred landscape from further desecration, as well as the health of communities already overburdened by oil and gas drilling.”
Contacts:
Rose Rushing, Western Environmental Law Center, 505-278-9577, rushing@westernlaw.org
Cheyenne Antonio, Diné C.A.R.E., 505-633-9363, chey@dine-care.org
Mike Eisenfeld, San Juan Citizens Alliance, 505-360-8994, mike@sanjuancitizens.org
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