Interior Dept Postpones Decision On Oil Drilling In New Mexico

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the department will extend the public comments period for a controversial oil and gas drilling plan in a part of New Mexico that contains a national park and Native American lands. The Associated Press reports that the decision was motivated by the coronavirus pandemic, which hit local tribes particularly hard by the disease, and that it followed a meeting between Bernhardt and local communities, environmentalists, and archaeologists. “After spending the pandemic pushing through environmental rollbacks…