Crossposted from
UNBOSSED
Last week, six New Mexico conservation groups and the Western Environmental Law Center filed a protest with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the April 16, 2008 sale of eighty-three oil and gas leases in New Mexico totaling nearly 103,000 acres.
Why is this a big deal?
This protest is groundbreaking. As far as I know, a protest of oil and gas leases based on the effects of climate change has never before been attempted.
This is a big deal.
While climate change is a growing threat to the United States and the world in general, the BLM is ignoring the natural gas industry’s massive contributions to global warming pollution as it feverishly promotes a runaway drilling boom. Oil and gas drilling is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in New Mexico. On April 16th, the BLM opened up another 100,000 acres of the state to the oil and gas industry without considering the impacts of climate change and without requiring the use of the latest technologies to cut global warming pollution.
Climate change is a major threat to New Mexico. A 2005 report by the State of New Mexico shows climate shifts driven by fossil fuel pollution will lead to prolonged heat waves, fires, deeper droughts, public health risks and more air pollution.
This protest is most interesting as it is predicated on the failure of the BLM to address climate change in its evaluation of the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas drilling leases it has issues throughout New Mexico over the past ten years. Further, it questions why state BLM director Linda Rundell would allow these lease sales to go forward without requiring industry to use the latest pollution-cutting technologies.
This protest is indicative of a growing backlash against an industry that is absolutely out of control and lacking any pretense of accountability to the broader public. This is more evidence that, at least in the Rocky Mountain west, citizen power is bubbling up while the Feds fiddle.
Climate change is an observable phenomenon. It is not something that will happen 'some day'. Its happening now. Here in the arid west, for example, we are already suffering from reduced snow pack due to climate change. Its not a laughing matter out here and the half-hearted NEPA analysis the BLM is conducting don’t even consider the massive, cumulative impacts of the oil and gas boom and what it will do to NM, the USA and the world.
In the context of state and private lands, we at least have state & local governments beginning to step up to the plate when it comes to climate change. For example, Governor Richardson has demonstrated incredible leadership on this issue, calling for a 75% reduction in global warming pollution from 2000 levels by 2050 to protect New Mexico. Further, last year, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to require the oil and gas industry to track and disclose their emissions of climate-changing pollution.
However, in the context of federal public lands, the problem is that BLM has tossed its stewardship responsibilities to the broader public out the window. The BLM has set aside all its other management responsibilities in a desperate bid to issue as many drilling permits on public lands as possible before the Bush Administration leaves office.
The oil and gas industry, for its part is determined to obscure the links between what’s going in places like the Galisteo Basin or Otero Mesa, with the efforts of State agencies to implement Governor Richardson’s climate change policies, and with their clear responsibility to protect the American public and actively address climate change. People are tired of the oil and gas industry dictating what happens in our communities and on our public lands. People are tired of having apparatchnicks like Linda Rundell abdicate their responsibility to the public and allow industry to drive climate change.
Of course, one can expect a push back from natural gas people who want the public to remain under the false impression that natural gas is clean burning and easy to produce. Its not. While natural gas may not be as dirty as coal it is still a very dirty fossil fuel both in how it burns and how it is produced. Producing more natural gas does nothing to move us towards TRULY green energy.
We’ll dive into this in much more detail over the rest of the week. I hope you'll join me:
Part II will discuss the background of this protest.
Part III will get into the details of the protest.
Part IV will discuss a similar protest just launched in Colorado.