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Gov. Urges President on Mesa (NM-Richardson wants to prevent natural gas drilling)
The Albuquerque Journal ^ | November 6, 2010 | Rene Romo

Posted on 11/06/2010 6:22:51 PM PDT by CedarDave

Gov. Bill Richardson has taken another step in his effort to protect sweeping grasslands on the Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico by urging President Barack Obama to designate 1.2 million acres of federal land a national monument.

Richardson's move was welcomed by conservationists, but received a cool response from the Oil and Gas Association and Congressman-elect Steve Pearce.

While the president could designate Otero Mesa a national monument by executive order and bypass congressional approval, New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman prefers that a consensus around such a designation is developed before that step is taken, said spokeswoman Jude McCartin.

"The local groundswell of support has not yet been achieved," McCartin said Friday.

Otero Mesa has been at the center of a nine-year struggle over whether the Bureau of Land Management should allow natural gas extraction.

~~snip~~

Steve Henke, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said he preferred an earlier BLM plan, challenged by the state, that allowed for restricted oil and natural gas leases, and he said he doubted monument designation has local support.

Steve Pearce, a Republican who defeated Democratic incumbent Rep. Harry Teague in Tuesday's election, questioned the cost of monument designation in terms of lost economic development and management costs. "We've got a lot of questions, and to be suggesting that we get this done by the end of the year is, in my mind, too rushed, too hurried," Pearce said.

(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: New Mexico; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: energy; landgrab; naturalgas; oteromesa
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To: CedarDave

What is it with these Fvcktards locking up natural resources in deference to “sweeping grasslands”? We have plenty of oil and gas for a hundred years, but we’re forced to import from regimes that hate our guts.

Great plan guys.


21 posted on 11/06/2010 7:11:40 PM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: CedarDave

Didn’t they ever watch the movie Giant. They proved yars ago that gras and oil wells are not destructive of each other.

Funny they never watched it one of their hero homosexuals starred in it.


22 posted on 11/06/2010 7:17:52 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: CedarDave

That does not belong to those Creeps that is the Americans land and resources.


23 posted on 11/06/2010 7:19:45 PM PDT by Cheetahcat (Zero the Wright kind of Racist! We are in a state of War with Democrats)
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To: CedarDave
I propose for the new congress a though review of all federal lands to be returned to the States..

O'Biden will VETO it... but the sound bites would be delicious..

24 posted on 11/06/2010 7:20:40 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: CedarDave
Gov. Bill Richardson has taken another step in his effort to protect sweeping grasslands on the Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico by urging President Barack Obama to designate 1.2 million acres of federal land a national monument.

Natural gas exploitation of the Otero would mean how many millions to SE New Mexico?

However, designation as a national monument will generate how much tourist traffic? Fourteen families a year, curious to see what 1.2 million acres of "sweeping grasslands" might look like?

In fact, they'll find it looks a lot like West Texas and Eastern New Mexico -- but with even fewer trees and at a higher altitude.

For a better look at what Gov. Bill wants to make into a national monument, go to Google World and find 32.3N lat/105.7W long.

25 posted on 11/06/2010 7:27:06 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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To: CedarDave

More lame duck madness. What does the governor elect say?


26 posted on 11/06/2010 7:31:31 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Democrat Party is shovel ready)
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To: GeronL; SaxxonWoods
"The President by fiat can do something like that??

Many, many presidents have designated federal lands as National Monuments since Congress passed the Antiquities Act.

Teddy Roosevelt created the most Natl Monuments.

GW Bush created the largest area of Natl Monument, but his Natl Monuments were Marine Monuments in the Pacific Ocean. No resource extraction-no fishing.

These lands in New Mexico, Otero Mesa, were bought from ranchers by the US Army/Fort Bliss when Ike was prez and later transferred to the BLM.

27 posted on 11/06/2010 7:34:18 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: okie01
For a better look at what Gov. Bill wants to make into a national monument, go to Google World and find 32.3N lat/105.7W long.

Excuse my ignorance, but I can't for the life of me find a place to insert coordinates on Google earth. It has the coordinates down the bottom, but no place to put them in.

Help anyone?

28 posted on 11/06/2010 7:48:43 PM PDT by CedarDave (Juan Williams to NPR: "You and your far left-wing mob fired me. Wasn't that enough for you? ")
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To: CedarDave

All of hussein’s executive orders, and all his little tin-pot czars, are going to be reviewed and reversed in 2013 by President Palin.


29 posted on 11/06/2010 7:52:18 PM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Restore santiy to DC, send obama, Reid, and Pelosi on vacation.)
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To: Mike Darancette
What does the governor elect say?

She hasn't issued a statement that I know of, but she was really supportive of the O&G industry, so I suspect she would like it to be developed for the resources.

30 posted on 11/06/2010 7:55:02 PM PDT by CedarDave (Juan Williams to NPR: "You and your far left-wing mob fired me. Wasn't that enough for you? ")
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To: CedarDave

Fat Billy needs one of those one way trips to Mars....


31 posted on 11/06/2010 8:41:06 PM PDT by Concho
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To: CedarDave

With stroke of pen, Bush could have undone Clinton’s “national monuments”, but HE DIDN’T!!!!!!!!


32 posted on 11/06/2010 8:42:15 PM PDT by Dogbert41
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To: okie01
I had to poke around to orient myself to what corner of SE New Mexico that Otero Mesa was located in. Most folks that have not radically been off the beaten track in the Southwest probably have not experienced nature at the level of harshness and hazard of this area of New Mexico. This corner of New Mexico makes the plains of Eastern New Mexico extending in to West Texas look like Central Park as a comparison.

For ranching, it probably takes land in blocks of 100,000 acres to scratch out an existence. Tourists? Forget about it. Few are equipped with gear and experience to do anything much more than 4wd to a camp, stay within sight of it more or less than leave in a couple of days when the water runs low. To actually go cross country, it takes horses and pack animals, plus sidearms and rifles for critter protection. Not to protect the wild critters but to protect yourself from them. My guess is that the ranchers that President Eisenhower bought out in the 1950s probably were on old Spanish land grants that had been in the family for several hundred years. The hard won knowledge on how to actually live there probably disappeared with the ranchers bought out in the 1950s. And they acquired it by being taught by their ancestors before them that wrested it from the Apache and Comanche.

33 posted on 11/06/2010 10:15:36 PM PDT by Hootowl99
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To: CedarDave

How big a wallop is the proposed drilling expected to actually deal to the grasslands?


34 posted on 11/06/2010 11:16:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: CedarDave

Thank God that legislation in New Mexico prevents Richardson from running for a third term as Governor. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), rated Richardson in April 2010 as one of America’s worst governors.


35 posted on 11/06/2010 11:35:57 PM PDT by jonrick46 (We're being water boarded with the sewage of Fabian Socialism.)
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To: GeronL

Let’s not give him any ideas, OK?


36 posted on 11/07/2010 1:24:04 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (Gone Galt and loving it)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Unknown since the natural gas reserves aren’t proven. Additionally, BLM has put so many restrictions on the industry that there won’t be much exploratory drilling. Obviously roads will degrade the grasslands but one of the restrictions is that they have to drill multiple wells from the same drill pad so the impact is less.


37 posted on 11/07/2010 7:15:08 PM PST by CedarDave (Juan Williams to NPR: "You and your far left-wing mob fired me. Wasn't that enough for you? ")
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To: jonrick46
Thank God that legislation in New Mexico prevents Richardson from running for a third term as Governor. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), rated Richardson in April 2010 as one of America’s worst governors.

Crew is a Soros funded group who specializes in targeting members of the GOP. I figure they are just piling on Richardson to make them look "even-handed."

38 posted on 11/07/2010 7:29:35 PM PST by CedarDave (Juan Williams to NPR: "You and your far left-wing mob fired me. Wasn't that enough for you? ")
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To: CedarDave

This sounds like it parallels the situation of the wildlife preserve in Alaska. The maximum footprint expected from drilling is literally minuscule compared to the overall size of the land in question. This is bureaucracy run amok, not sound wildlife management.


39 posted on 11/08/2010 7:07:20 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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