WildEarth Guardians
Last week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to consider the nomination of David Bernhardt to serve as Secretary of the Interior. At the hearing, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich pressed Bernhardt -- who was most recently right-hand man to disgraced former Secretary Ryan Zinke and before that worked as a fossil fuel industry lobbyist -- about his plans for the Greater Chaco region and whether he supported expanded fracking there.
I was glad to see the senator from my home state raise this important issue. Chaco is truly a special place, and, like many of the public lands under attack by this administration, it’s worthy of expanded protections. The area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park is home to thousands of ancient pueblos and archeological sites, along with communities and neighborhoods, all of which are being put at risk by industrial fracking operations already scattered across more than 90% of the public landscape. The people of the Greater Chaco Landscape -- including Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Zuni, Ute, and Pueblo communities -- deserve to have their health and cultural well-being protected from the pollution and other impacts that have come with fracking.
In response to Senator Heinrich’s questions, Bernhardt gave a vague answer about how he’d be interested in visiting the area and discussing options, but we know the truth. Under Bernhardt’s watch, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is within the Department of the Interior, has been pushing hard to sell off as much land as possible in Greater Chaco for fracking. BLM has repeatedly given notice of lease sales that include parcels within the 10-mile informal buffer zone around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, then made a show of withdrawing the parcels within the buffer zone while quietly auctioning off huge swaths of lands in the surrounding area.
These games aren’t fooling local communities, and opposition to BLM’s plans has continued to grow. In fact, at the same time Bernhardt was trying to obscure the truth about his agenda in Washington, DC, New Mexico communities were coming together for a rally and peaceful sit-in at BLM’s state office in Santa Fe to protest the lease sale of 11,000 acres of public and ancestral tribal lands. Under Bernhardt’s leadership, BLM went forward with the controversial lease sale despite having received more than 33,000 protest comments from tribal leaders, environmental groups, and members of the public expressing concerns that the sale would have negative impacts on cultural resources, public health, and the climate.
The Department of the Interior should be run by someone who understands the value of places like Greater Chaco and will commit to protecting them instead of ignoring community input and selling off public lands to the fossil fuel industry. David Bernhardt has made it clear that he’s not that person.
Tell your senators: This fossil fuel industry lobbyist has no business overseeing America’s most treasured public lands: sc.org/stopbernhardt