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New Mexico asks Biden administration to resolve drilling policy ‘confusion’

Feb 11, 2021

New Mexico officials are asking the Biden administration to resolve confusion in the state’s oil and gas industry over a 60-day pause on allowing state-level staff to issue approvals for new federal lands drilling.

In a letter dated Feb. 9 but seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Sarah Cottrell Propst, secretary of New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, asked the Department of Interior to clarify how right-of-way permits fit into the policy.

The order, issued Jan. 20, stripped Interior agencies and bureaus of their authority to issue new drilling leases or permits while it reviews the federal minerals leasing program as part of a broader agenda to fight climate change.

New Mexico asks Biden administration to resolve drilling policy ‘confusion’