Feds push back lease sale over transparency concerns

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – The Bureau of Land Management is delaying next week’s lease sale in the heart of New Mexico oil and gas country after activists raised concerns about transparency.
Environmentalists who have been protesting lease sales across the West consider the decision a small victory as they push for the agency to do large-scale assessments of the effects of drilling on federal land.
The sale was initially planned for July 20 in Santa Fe, home of the BLM’s main off