Feds mull Chaco drilling rules over Native community objections

Published March 25th, 2021 at 7:51 am

DAILY DIGITAL EDITION | THURSDAY | MARCH 25th
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This morning we start with two stories from Indian Country.

The first: The most recent chapter in the fight over if and how to allow existing oil and gas leases to be developed on federal land near Chaco Canyon started under the Trump administration but the Biden administration gets the final word.

One of Secretary Deb Haaland’s first big tests will be how she manages that decision which is rapidly approaching her inbox. Biden’s executive order freezing new oil and gas leases makes existing ones on federal land even more important to our energy future and economy, say oil and gas interests. Native communities living with the wells see it differently. One option: make the ban on oil and gas development near Chaco permanent and likely enter into years of litigation with lease holders. Another: send the whole process back for real input from tribal communities. What would you do? Read this excellent piece from our partners at Capital & Main and tell us online.

The second: In our own reporting and in partnership with Searchlight New Mexico we’ve brought you the story of Dineh Benally‘s quest(s) to start a Native-owned legal marijuana business. The problem: cannabis is not legal on Native land and the migrant Asian workforce he used raised humanitarian and labor issues. While Federal and Navajo officials press forward on a criminal case there, he has now popped up trying to start a new operation with other tribal partners. This chapter of this saga is just as interesting as the first.

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