Overview
- The Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental assessment on July 16 and opened a 14-day public comment period that closes July 29.
- The analysis lays out three options: keep the existing 10-mile withdrawal, reduce the buffer to 5 miles, or fully revoke the withdrawal and reopen about 336,400 acres to new leasing.
- The draft estimates revocation could yield the equivalent of roughly 2.2 million barrels of oil over 20 years while saying new coal or uranium mining is unlikely.
- The BLM admits its cultural survey is incomplete but lists at least 7,552 known historic properties and 145 traditional cultural properties within the buffer, raising concerns about harm to undocumented sacred and archaeological sites.
- Tribal leaders are split with the All Pueblo Council of Governors opposing revocation and the Navajo Nation favoring a zero-buffer position, and the agency’s decision is likely to prompt more legal and political challenges.