The U.S. Interior Department has announced its intention to challenge a Louisiana U.S. District Court judge's injunction on its oil and gas leasing moratorium. However, it will comply with the order to resume federal oil and gas lease sales.

In response, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter has issued statements expressing concern over the impact of these lease sales on New Mexicans. Miya King-Flaherty, Oil and Gas Organizer for the chapter, emphasized that no new leasing should occur on public lands. She noted encouragement from the Interior Department's indication of using statutory discretion in future leasing, hoping this includes significant environmental analyses and consultations that were absent in previous lease sales.

King-Flaherty highlighted that "the federal oil and gas program inadequately accounts for environmental harms to lands, waters, and other resources" and often excludes impacted communities from vital discussions. She pointed out that for over a decade, the Government Accountability Office has labeled these programs as "high risk," indicating vulnerability to waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, and a need for transformation.

Camilla Feibelman, Director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, linked the Interior Department's reform intentions with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s commitment to reduce New Mexico’s climate pollution by 45% by 2030. Feibelman referenced the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report underscoring the necessity of drastically reducing fossil fuel emissions within this decade to prevent extreme climate disasters witnessed during recent summers.