Protest Period Open for Upcoming New Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale
Protests due: December 9
Hi Chris,
The Sale Notice for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management May 2025 Oil and Gas Lease Sale is now available. According to the website and documents, the Bureau of Land Management is analyzing 7 parcels, totaling 1,317 acres.
Protests are due by Monday, December 9.
Rocky Mountain Wild has prepared a screen showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness, and other resources values including:
- Parcels in other habitat for terrestrial species of economic and recreational importance
- Parcels within an area identified as a priority corridor region for pronghorn
- A parcel within 10 miles of Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Two parcels, NM-2025-02-6848 and NM-2025-02-6845, are in areas identified in Bureau of Land Management published Reasonable Foreseeable Development Scenario Documents as having low potential for oil and gas development. Both parcels are within 2 miles of active wells although the nearest active wells to parcel NM-2025-02-6848 are almost exactly 2 miles away.
Please take a moment and send your protests to the Bureau of Land Management asking them to protect the wildlife and wild lands in this region by removing affected areas from the proposed parcels list.
Instructions for how to submit a protest by email, paper mail, or hand delivery can be found under the Documents section.
To date, we have helped defer more than 3 million acres of public land from oil and gas development! Together, we can save even more.
Additional Resources:
Oil & Gas Toolkit - including a guide from our Senior Conservation Biologist, Megan Mueller, on how to write technical comments about impacts to plan and animal species. Check it out under "Writing comments and Protects" here
Virtual Event Recording: Oil and Gas Lease Sale Comment Writing Workshop
May 2025 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease e-planning website
New Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sales webpage
BLM announces February 2025 oil and gas lease sale in New Mexico announcement
For the wild!
Chris Talbot-Heindl (they/them)
Communications Director, Leadership Team
Rocky Mountain Wild
P.S. RMW scopes each and every oil and gas lease sale in our region. Help fund this important work with a
one-time or monthly donation here.
Header:
Three pronghorn in Cimarron, New Mexico, courtesy of Larry Lamsa (CC BY 2.0)
