GreenLatinos Applauds Biden Plan for 20-year Drilling Ban around Chaco Canyon National Park

Colorado - The Biden administration has announced plans for a 20-year ban on oil and gas drilling in Chaco Canyon and surrounding areas in northwestern New Mexico, a major historical and sacred site for ancestral Puebloans, Hopi, Zuni and Diné (Navajo) people. Mark Magaña the Founding President & CEO of GreenLatinos, released the following statement in response to this news:

“Amidst an increasingly destructive climate crisis, oil and gas companies have tried to lease lands for drilling around Chaco Canyon for decades. As a result, drilling has gotten closer and closer to the ancestral home of the Pueblo peoples and an irreplaceable cherished sacred site.

President Biden and Secretary Haaland’s decision today sends a strong signal that industry shareholder  profits will not be prioritized at the expense of the culture and health of Indigenous communities. It sends a much needed message to tribal communities: Indigenous heritage has value to us as a society.

We celebrate alongside Pueblo families and many more Indigenous community members on this momentous occasion.”

GreenLatinos is an active comunidad of Latino/a/x leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.

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