Albuquerque Journal

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Governor Sues Feds On Otero Drilling; State Wants Court To Invalidate Plan

By Tania Soussan
Journal Staff Writer
    Gov. Bill Richardson and Attorney General Patricia Madrid sued the federal government Friday in an effort to limit dramatically oil and gas drilling on southern New Mexico's Otero Mesa.
    "The federal government has stomped on the rights of conservationists, hunters, ranchers and others who treasure our public lands," Richardson said, calling Otero Mesa "a sacred environmental area."
    Richardson and Madrid announced their lawsuit to a crowd of about 150 cheering supporters during an Earth Day news conference at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
    "I can't think of a more appropriate day to file a lawsuit against the Bush administration and the Bureau of Land Management," Madrid said.
    "The federal government is imposing its will on the state. The federal government does not want to reach a compromise," she said. "I have a message for the federal government and the Bush administration: 'Not on our watch.' ''
    BLM State Director Linda Rundell said Friday afternoon she hadn't seen the lawsuit but called it frivolous.
    "I'm disappointed the state wants to continue with its opposition, because it is the most restrictive plan the BLM has ever issued, and it will protect the natural resources," she said in a telephone interview.
    Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, agreed.
    "It's hard not to see (the lawsuit's) rollout today as pure Earth Day posturing," he said in a statement. "The fact is that BLM has bent over backward to put in place a policy that protects federal land at Otero Mesa, allowing only certain areas to be open for possible energy exploration."
    The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe, was assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker, the same judge who in 2002 ruled in favor of environmentalists in a landmark case over protections for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow.
    Otero Mesa, which lies south of Alamogordo, has been the focus of national controversy over the balance between access for oil and gas companies and protections for the Chihuahuan Desert grassland, wildlife and water resources.
    The BLM says its plan— which allows a maximum of 141 exploratory wells and 84 producing wells in Otero and Sierra counties— would disturb less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the area.
    Richardson pointed out that, nevertheless, drilling could occur anywhere over 95 percent of the planning area.
    "We are going to win to protect this land," the governor said. "We can do better at managing federal lands. We can do better at protecting the state's interests and better at meeting our energy needs."
    Attorney Letty Belin, who is representing the state, said the BLM violated several federal laws by rejecting an alternative plan that Richardson proposed for Otero Mesa, by not putting the governor's plan out for public comment, by failing to do new environmental analysis when it revised its plan and lessened drilling restrictions and by not consulting with Indian tribes over cultural and archaeological resources.
    Rundell said the state is not reading federal law correctly. She said everything the governor raised in his alternative had already been considered by the public, and no additional environmental review was needed because the impacts of drilling did not change and tribal consultations were done.
    The suit asks the court to invalidate the BLM plan and force the agency to accept all of Richardson's recommendations.
    Rick Simpson, chairman of the Lincoln County Commission and a hunting outfitter, said at the news conference that Otero Mesa supports large populations of wildlife, including pronghorn, scaled quail, eagles and Barbary sheep.
    "When we make scars and roads on this desert landscape, it doesn't last for a few years, it lasts for a few generations," he said. "Right now, that mesa is just like God made it and it would just break my heart to see it cut up."