Prior to my tenure as State Land Commissioner virtually any request to the land office for an Oil & Gas (O & G) lease was approved. During my years in office, requests were evaluated based on new criteria.

In particular, in frontier areas--those areas that had not been used extensively for O & G production--were evaluated using a thorough interdisciplinary and inter-divisional technical review.

And, for the first time at the land office, the Field Operations Division conservation biologist, range specialist, environmental engineer, geographic information systems specialist, archeologist, local district field manager, regional supervisor and the staff of the Commercial Resources Division worked with the Oil and Gas Division to evaluate the requests.

Back in 1997 or '98 the SLO was approached by O & G interests to lease large tracts of trust holdings in two areas of southwestern NM. These areas included significant acreage in Otero and Hidalgo Counties.

The Otero County evaluation was the first interdisciplinary and inter-divisional review that we did. Almost all of the Trust land in the area was part of the request to lease. The field analysis resulted in a good portion being withdrawn due to the unique nature of the biological resources and cultural resource concerns.

The second big review was in Hidalgo County, the Boot heel, mainly the Playas Valley, but also parts of the Gray Ranch, Big Hatchet Mountains and the Alamo Hueco Mountains. Almost all of the acreage in proximity to the mountain ranges was withdrawn, as was some acreage in-between mountains because it was used as a travel corridor for desert bighorn sheep.

I supported and implemented the recommendations made by the SLO staff. This resulted in rejecting those requests that jeopardized sensitive areas and approving areas that were deemed appropriate.

Given the current effort to protect the entire area as a unified whole, I have taken the position that drilling should not occur at Otero Mesa. And I will continue to lobby the federal government to protect Otero Mesa.