I went to the Bureau of Land Management scoping meeting in Shiprock and came away convinced it was a sham.
The meeting was called to inform the public on the process of amending the current 2003 Resource Management Plan (RMPA) for the area around Chaco Canyon, and issue an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
It was also an opportunity for tribal members and others to express their views on oil and gas extraction.
The BLM slide show and talk would have us believe that new and improved “Best Management Practices” would be put in place when the plan is completed. This is a lie. The oil and gas industry and its Republican tools in Congress and the White House are already rewriting the rules. They are throwing out the new and restoring insufficient and flawed regulations.
The very next day Scott Tipton and other House Republicans voted to overturn recently implemented methane rules that would have protected our health here in the Four Corners and help stabilize a climate on the brink of disaster.
What’s next? The Associated Press reports, in the Denver Post: “Rules on fracking . . . are in the GOP crosshairs.”
Unless we stop them, the only best management practices that we’ll see in the RMPA and EIS are ones that make it easier to pollute the air, land and water we need to live healthy lives.
The RMPA and EIS must be put on indefinite hold until both science and respect for the values of those affected, and not corporate profits, determine whether extraction of oil and gas should continue.
The Navajo who rose to speak were united in their belief that oil and gas development on the Reservation must stop. They should be listened to.
Read Brugger
Cortez
