U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said on July 30 that recent legislation under consideration would remove protections from public lands and called for greater bipartisan collaboration within the committee. Heinrich criticized what he described as a lack of conservation efforts in current legislative proposals and addressed actions by the Trump administration regarding Chaco Canyon.
“Unfortunately, this is yet another markup in this Committee where we are not conserving a single additional acre of public land for the American people,” Heinrich said during his opening remarks at a business meeting to consider pending legislation.
Heinrich emphasized that while changes to national park boundaries can be necessary, such decisions should not solely focus on removing protections without also considering measures that add them. He specifically referenced the Chaco Culture National Historic Park mineral withdrawal, clarifying its intent and disputing characterizations of it as a land transfer. “I just want to make it clear that in the Chaco [Canyon] case, there was no land transfer. All of that land remained in public hands. There was a mineral withdrawal that was designed to protect thousands of individual archeological and cultural sites. I would also make the point that right now this administration is stripping those protections away in an effort to facilitate oil and gas drilling,” Heinrich said.
Senator Lisa Murkowski acknowledged previous committee discussions about protecting sacred Native lands such as Chaco Canyon, noting past efforts involving large-scale mineral withdrawals around culturally significant sites: “We have had opportunities within this Committee over the years to talk about the significance of what it means within these Native lands to ensure that we are protecting sacred sites and culturally historic sites… That was about 336,000 acres, in an area that is only about 34,000.”
In response, Heinrich reiterated concerns over proposed boundary changes elsewhere: “As I said in my opening statement, I do have concerns with the size. This is a 600-acre archeological site and a 22,000-acre transfer.” He added his intention to work with Murkowski on achieving balanced outcomes: “I look forward to working with [Murkowski] to try and find that balance so that we can move more legislation forward in this Committee.”
Heinrich expressed support for certain bills such as those modernizing geothermal energy permitting but opposed others like S. 4399 due to their impact on conservation efforts.