we don't need no stinking enviorment
US to open vast region for drilling in Southwest
New Mexico governor vows to fight decision
By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press | January 26, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE -- Despite protests by the governor and environmentalists, the federal government has decided to open nearly all of New Mexico's vast Otero Mesa for exploratory drilling but vowed that the oil and gas industry won't have a ''free-for-all."
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The decision Monday by the Bureau of Land Management permanently will protect about 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acre mesa, one of North America's largest remaining pieces of Chihuahuan desert grassland.
Governor Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.
''The state is going to fight this with everything we've got," Richardson said.