THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY
COALITION TO PROTECT AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS * FRIENDS OF THE EARTH * NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION * ROCKY MOUNTAIN WILD * THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP
June 5, 2024
SUBMITTED VIA E-PLANNING
Melanie Barnes
State Director Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico
(505) 954-2222
Project Contact:
Catherine Brewster
cbrewster@blm.gov
(505) 954-2170
Re: Scoping Comments on Parcels for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management 2025 First Quarter Competitive Oil & Gas Lease Sale (DOI-BLM- NM-P020-2024-0740-EA).
Dear State Director Barnes:
Thank you for the opportunity to submit these scoping comments on parcels under consideration for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) New Mexico 2025 First Quarter Oil and Gas Lease Sale. Our organizations and members are deeply invested in sound stewardship of public lands and committed to ensuring that public land management prioritizes the health and resilience of ecosystems, equitably benefits the public, addresses environmental justice, protects biodiversity, and mitigates the impacts of climate change.
We are grateful for both the recently released final Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule (Leasing Rule) and the earlier release of several Instruction Memoranda (IMs) implementing program reforms and provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).1See Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, H.R. 5376, 117th Cong. §§ 50262–50263 (2022). We appreciate the BLM’s attention to properly applying the Leasing Rule’s provisions and the IMs for this lease sale.
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