Gallup Sun

Prepares for action on orphaned wells

Staff Reports

New Mexico’s District Three Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M had a checklist of reasons to smile when President Joseph Biden signed the Infrastructure Act Nov. 15.

As Chair of the Subcommittee on Indigenous People, Leger Fernández advocated for investments to make broadband accessible and affordable for low-income and rural households, funding for water infrastructure projects, including the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project, tribal funding and $4.7 billion to plug orphaned wells.

Leger Fernández introduced the Orphaned Wells Cleanup and Jobs Act of 2021 in April to clean up over 56,000 known “orphaned” oil and gas...

During a White House Tribal-Nations Summit, the Biden Administration proposed a 20-year ban on oil and gas leasing around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

The Mountain Pact is thrilled with the administration’s action today (Nov. 15) to institute a 20-year ban on oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius around the Greater Chaco Landscape. Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a UNESCO world heritage site and the sacred ancestral homeland to many Indigenous communities. We are grateful to the Biden Administration for working to protect the cultural and spiritual importance of this landscape from short-term extraction and development.

Through the America the Beautiful...

Tribal Consultation Ignored

By Alray Nelson
Communications Director
24th Navajo Nation Council

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The 24th Navajo Nation Council reaffirmed its opposition to the Biden Administration proposal of a 20-year ban on oil and gas drilling within a 10-mile radius of the Chaco Culture Heritage Withdrawal Area in northwestern New Mexico.

President Biden announced the plan during the first day of the White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C. The Interior Department plans for the Bureau of Land Management to initiate consideration of this 20-year withdrawal of federal lands around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the coming weeks.

The BLM intends...

There’s still time to be heard on Redistricting

The New Mexico Redistricting Committee has filed its final report with the New Mexico Legislature and is asking voters to encourage state representatives to follow the Committee’s recommendations.

Background: Every ten years, after the Census, voting districts are realigned for equal voter representation. Redistricting is the process of redrawing the geographical boundaries that correspond to certain elected offices to account for changes in population. This is done by the state legislature and of course that means politics rule. In establishing the Redistricting Committee, the Legislature voted to have a more representative group...