A watchdog group says the Bureau of Land Management has allowed energy companies to sidestep timing restrictions and develop inside-buffer zones designed to protect the imperiled lesser prairie chicken in New Mexico.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, says records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show BLM has approved dozens of waiver, exemption or modification requests, mostly from the oil and gas industry, allowing them to circumvent restrictions on activity within the prairie chicken’s habitat in eastern New Mexico.