13-02-04 The governor of New Mexico, leading an unusual alliance of ranchers, environmentalists, hunters and property-rights activists, has launched an election-year challenge to the Bush administration's energy policies, vowing to block a plan to drill for natural gas on a vast expanse of desert grasslands in the state. Gov. Bill Richardson's opposition represents the strongest signal to date that the Rocky Mountain West, long dependent on energy production, is having second thoughts about the administration's aggressive advocacy of drilling for oil and gas.
"The federal government just got notice that, if they want to drill in Otero Mesa, this governor and this state are going to fight them," Richardson said at a rally in Albuquerque.

Richardson, who was secretary of energy during the Clinton administration, remains a player on the national political stage. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee and will be chairman of this summer's Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Richardson's decision to champion the protection of Otero Mesa is a sign that the Bush energy policy could emerge as a campaign issue in the Mountain West as Democrats rail against Republican special interests. The companies that stand to benefit most from drilling at Otero Mesa have close ties to members of the Bush administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney and top officials of the Department of the Interior. That has led opponents to argue that cronyism, rather than sound energy policy, is behind the Otero Mesa drilling plan.

The contested area, encompassing 1.2 mm acres in southern Otero County, west of Carlsbad and northeast of El Paso, is a vast plain, punctuated with rugged rock formations, that has long been a magnet for hunters and naturalists. It is home to herds of pronghorn, migratory songbirds and endangered Aplomado falcons.
"I think people see this as a remnant of the old New Mexico they love -- a wildness and an openness," said Greta Miller, a member of New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. "People here love it and want it to stay like it is."

Ranchers own some of the land in the area, as does the state. But the federal government is by far the largest landowner; the Interior Department controls the area of greatest interest to oil and gas companies. The governor described Otero Mesa's rare Chihuahuan Desert grasslands as "the West's ANWR," a reference to Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Earlier, Richardson signed an executive order making it state policy to protect Otero Mesa. The governor's authority over the area is limited. But he said he would seek to prevent new energy leases on state land, strengthen rules regarding the disposal of mine waste and take steps to limit the issuing of crucial water permits to drillers.

New Mexico is the nation's second-largest producer of natural gas from onshore wells and the fifth-largest producer of oil. Taxes and royalties from the energy industry are by far the largest component of the state's $ 12 bn permanent fund, which primarily finances education.
Richardson said he supported energy exploration elsewhere in the state, but that federal land managers needed to be more discriminating in where they allowed wells. The Bush administration has countered that the drilling is necessary to meet growing national demand.