GOP Contributor in New Mexico Gets Leeway for Oil Drilling

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA02EKBFRD.html

GOP Contributor in New Mexico Gets Leeway for Oil Drilling
By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has eased Clinton-era oil and gas drilling restrictions on a large tract of desert grassland in New Mexico in a decision that benefits a large Republican donor in the state.

The donor, George Yates, says his contributions and fund-raising assistance to Vice President Dick Cheney had nothing to do with the decision. The Interior Department says its drilling plan, while opening up more land in Otero Mesa, will be the most restrictive ever. <snip>

The environmental group (Campaign to Protect America's Lands) said the Interior Department's estimate of 141 wells is based on an outdated plan for Otero Mesa before Yates drilled a successful well there in the late 1990s. <snip>

<snip>Cheney participated in a political fund-raiser hosted by Yates in 2002, and Yates has made over $90,000 in personal campaign donations over the past five years, almost all to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations. <snip>

Yates Petroleum, an oil and gas company controlled by relatives of Yates, contributed over $100,000 in the 2002

[oldcoot]

1. I am shocked!

Could these people be any more corrupt?

[papau]

2. The media's ability to give reports of GOP corruption "no legs" is

shocking!

sigh......


:-)

[Gloria]

3. Yup..and Congressman Steve Pearce, R-creep, has enabled this

and he himself has business interests in drilling equipment.

People have been fighting this like crazy....it's the last untouched expanse of this type of ecological system in the SW....