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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 El Paso County Commission today voted 4-1 to approve a resolution opposing any potential oil and gas drilling on Otero Mesa, across the state line in southern New Mexico, the El Paso Times is reporting. Commissioners supported a movement to seek federal protection in the U.S. Congress for the mesa ... The lone vote against the measure came from Commissioner Dan Haggerty, who said the country is currently in a gas crisis, the paper said. Environmentalists told commissioners that Otero Mesa is a potential water source for El Paso County ... The U.S. Bureau of Land Management had proposed...

Gov. Bill Richardson and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop said Monday that an environmental assessment done by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on an application for a permit to drill on Otero Mesa is insufficient. The state is calling on the BLM to do a full environmental impact statement on the application of Harvey E. Yates Co. The Roswell-based business known as Heyco has proposed putting a natural gas well on land it leases in the area. Prukop sent a letter Monday to the BLM, saying the state was concerned the agency's review of Heyco's application...

Environmental activists should focus on making progress at the local rather than federal level, Gov. Bill Richardson told the national governing council of the Wilderness Society in Albuquerque on Thursday. The Bush administration and Congress are not advancing environmental policies, but governors and mayors are making progress, the governor told the group. "I know things are not good now (in Washington, D.C.), but at the state level, there are so many ways we can protect our land," Richardson said. As an example, he said he has sued the federal government over oil and gas drilling in southern New Mexico's Otero...

New Mexico is suing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to stop drilling on the environmentally sensitive Otero Mesa of south-central New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson and Attorney General Patricia Madrid, appearing at the University of New Mexico for Earth Day, announced the filing of a lawsuit to stop the BLM's drilling plan. Richardson, who called Otero Mesa one of the greatest groundwater resources in the state, said the federal government has stomped on the rights of New Mexican ranchers, environmentalists and outdoorsmen. Otero Mesa has the nation's largest contiguous patch of black gramma grass, which takes decades to re-establish...

Gov. Bill Richardson's administration is recommending that the federal government prohibit or sharply restrict oil and gas drilling on more than 600,000 acres in southern New Mexico, including desert grasslands of Otero Mesa. The state submitted a proposal on Monday to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as an alternative to a draft federal plan to guide oil and gas exploration and development on more than 2 million acres in Sierra and Otero counties. Richardson has proposed that Congress establish a National Conservation Area on about 640,000 acres, which would include Chihuahuan Desert grasslands. Of that, 310,000 acres would be...

OTERO MESA, N.M. — The governor of New Mexico — leading an unusual alliance of ranchers, environmentalists, hunters and property-rights activists — has launched an election-year challenge to the Bush administration's energy policies, vowing to block a plan to drill for gas on a vast expanse of desert grasslands here. Gov. Bill Richardson's opposition represents the strongest signal to date that the Rocky Mountain West, long dependent on energy production, is having second thoughts about the administration's aggressive advocacy of oil and gas drilling. "The federal government just got notice that, if they want to drill in Otero Mesa, this...

Monday, March 8, 2004Otero Plan on Way to BLM By Tania SoussanCopyright © 2004 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer     The federal government's plan to guide future oil and gas development on Otero Mesa violates several state policies and should be dramatically more restrictive, according to Gov. Bill Richardson.     The governor's consistency review, which includes an alternative plan to manage the area in southwestern New Mexico, will be delivered to the Bureau of Land Management today.     Richardson, environmentalists, ranchers and hunters have criticized the BLM plan, saying it falls far short of what is needed to protect fragile...

Sunday, February 1, 2004 Richardson To Protect Otero Mesa Gov. Bill Richardson pledged Saturday that the state will do all it can to protect Otero Mesa from oil and gas development, including protesting a federal plan for the area and making life tougher for drillers.     "The federal government just got a notice that if they want to drill in Otero Mesa, this governor and this state are going to fight them," Richardson told a cheering crowd of more than 600 people at the KiMo Theatre in Downtown Albuquerque.     The U.S. Bureau of Land Management earlier this month released...

Sunday, January 11, 2004 Oil Drillers Fight To Tap Otero Mesa By Tania SoussanJournal Staff Writer    Otero Mesa at first glance is a dusty and desolate chunk of land just this side of the Texas border.     But it has inspired a broad coalition of conservationists and others to rally for its protection while oil and gas drillers fight tenaciously— with powerful political clout on their side— for the right to sink wells into what might be a lucrative new natural gas field.     Why all the fuss?     National and New Mexico environmental groups argue Otero Mesa is a...