Biden Moves To Ban Oil, Gas Development Outside Native American Park

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Monday announced a step toward prohibiting oil and gas development outside the boundaries of a major Native American park in the Southwestern United States as part of a tribal summit he is hosting.
Biden also signed an executive order aimed at improving public safety and justice for Native Americans. Representatives from 570 tribes are expected to participate in the event, which is being held virtually because of the pandemic.

“In the coming weeks, the Department of the Interior will initiate consideration of a 20-year withdrawal of federal lands within a 10-mile (16-km) radius around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, protecting the area from new federal oil and gas leasing and development,” the White House said in a statement.

The proposed action would not apply to individual Native American allotments or to minerals within the area, it said.

Tribes have long called on U.S. officials to ban drilling in the area, a center of ancestral Pueblo culture.

Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have been pressuring U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to take steps to ban oil and gas development outside the boundaries of the park, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.