The Bureau of Land Management has a dilemma of its
own making in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness of northwest New
Mexico. First, the agency is writing a draft environmental impact
statement for drilling 13 oil wells and building 5.5 miles of road
in a federally protected wilderness. Second, nobody really wants to
drill there.
The problem began in 1991, when the
agency overlooked the fact that the area might be designated
wilderness and sold oil and gas rights in the Bisti. Five years
later, Congress protected the area as wilderness. “It was a
slip-up,” agency manager Joel Farrell told the Albuquerque
Journal.
Now, the agency faces few options.
Speerex, the oil company that bought the rights, turned down the
agency’s offer of a mineral exchange and continues legal action
against the BLM.
At Farmington and Santa Fe
public hearings, a strong majority of people opposed drilling under
any circumstances. “(The Bureau of Land Management) got themselves
into this mess and they should be able to get themselves out,” says
Sam Hitt of the Forest Guardians. Hitt says his group will sue if
the agency allows drilling.
On the other hand, if
the agency doesn’t allow drilling, Speerex could win its “takings’
suit, which argues that the BLM illegally sold rights that could
never be developed. Stephen Speer, the Roswell, N.M., geologist who
heads Speerex, complains that court delays have tied up his
operation for seven years. But Speer also admits that drilling in a
protected wilderness would be absurd.
Speer won’t
say why he refuses a mineral exchange. Fred Hansen, president of
the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, figures there’s a simple
explanation: A court award could be worth more than the BLM’s
substitute land.
“Taffeta
Elliott
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Between an oil lease and a hard place.
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