The nation is dying for jobs with unemployment just under 10%.  We are spending billions on foreign energy.  New Mexico is starving for tax revenues…and the Democrats in Congress are going to make all of them worse.  The Administration has proposed to close the Otero Mesa permanently to all drilling for oil and gas.  Make your voice heard.  Call your representatives to oppose the move.

The Obama administration is taking steps to close off several parts of the Intermountain West to industrial activity, including four areas believed to hold significant oil and natural gas deposits.

If successful, the initiative would block future production of hydrocarbons in the San Rafael Swell in Utah, the Otero Mesa in New Mexico, the Vermillion Basinin Colorado, and the Northern Prairie in Montana.

The US Interior Department is leading the effort and says it is authorized to take such action under the Antiquities Act of 1906.  

Interior officials hope to designate 14 areas as "national monuments," which would ban drilling or other activities that may disturb the landscape. Existing leaseholders would not be affected.

One area targeted for national monument status, the 1.2 million-acre Otero Mesa in southeastern New Mexico, is believed to hold large natural gas deposits. The Bush administration allowed companies to drill some exploratory wells in the region several years ago.

Broader development initiatives have been delayed, however, after a USappeals court ordered federal agencies last May to conduct preparatory planning work again to comply better with guidelines outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act.