December 18, 2019
Hand-Delivered
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
New Mexico State Office
Attn: Tim Spisak, State Director
301 Dinosaur Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Re: Protest of New Mexico BLM’s February 2020 Oil & Gas Lease Sale, Rio Puerco Field
Office Parcels (DOI-BLM-NM-A010-2019-0084-EA) and Farmington Field Office
Parcel (DOI-BLM-NM-F010-2019-0103-EA)
Dear BLM:
Western Environmental Law Center, along with Center for Biological Diversity,
Chaco Alliance, Counselor Chapter House, Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment,
Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pueblo
Action Alliance, Rio Arriba Concerned Citizens, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Sierra Club,
Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc., WildEarth Guardians, and 350 New Mexico (hereinafter “Citizen
Groups”), submit the following protest of BLM’s decision to move forward with its February
2020 competitive oil and gas lease sale. BLM is planning to lease 72 oil and gas parcels totaling
17,670.82 acres across New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma in its February 2020 lease sale. Of
particular interest to the Citizen Groups are the 8 parcels totaling 1330.08 acres within the Rio
Puerco Field Office (“RPFO”) and the Farmington Field Office (“FFO”).
1
As detailed in more
depth below, the Citizen Groups encourage the BLM to complete a thorough, transparent
environmental review for the parcels before moving forward with the lease sale.
2
1
The lease sale notice for February 2020, and EAs for the protest period for both FFO and RPFO, are available at
the following e-planning page: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-
office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage&currentPageId=200002644 . The
EA for the RPFO is also available at https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-
office/projects/nepa/1500848/20009821/250011486/EA_RPFO_Feb2020LeaseSale_508v2.pdf. The EA for the FFO
is also available at https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-
office/projects/nepa/1500848/20009786/250011445/EA_FFO_Feb2020LeaseSale_508.pdf. Some of the Citizen
Groups will also be submitting separate comments on the Carlsbad Field Office parcels.
2
Citizen Groups submitted comments in previous phases of this lease sale, but BLM has failed to respond
substantively to those comments.