The Biden administration announced a 20-year pause on oil or gas exploration on federal lands surrounding the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a 30,000 acre area spanning New Mexico and Arizona that is one of the oldest and most culturally significant ancestral sites in the country. Indigenous groups have pushed for decades to protect this land, which contains more than 4,7000 archaeological sites dating back thousands of years and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Interior Department took more than 11,0,000 comments to the rule, and consulted with 24 Indigenous groups as the administration looked to follow through on a 2021 pledge to prevent drilling in the area. (Reuters, AP, The Hill)