Tensions escalate among Navajo leaders as Nygren finally agrees to address Navajo Nation Council
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren's designated seat within the Navajo Nation Council Chamber remained empty during the State of the Navajo Nation Address for the opening of the Spring Session on April 21, 2025. Photo courtesy of the Navajo Nation Council
Two days after he ignored a subpoena demanding he appear before the Navajo Nation Council as it kicked off its spring legislative session, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren will deliver his State of the Navajo Nation address on Wednesday.
It will be the first time that Nygren has appeared in the council chambers since January, when he cut his short and left before completing his quarterly State of the Navajo Nation address amid questions from delegates that he thought were disrespectful.
Although Nygren announced on Tuesday that he would honor the Navajo Nation Council Speaker's invitation to appear before the council and provide this quarter's report in person, he made clear that he wouldn't hesitate to leave again if he was asked questions he didn't want to answer.
'I am prepared to have a meaningful, engaging and productive discussion about the things we were all elected on, including housing, water, electricity, roads, broadband, sovereignty and more,' he said in a memo to the speaker's office.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
'I request that you allow me to present my State of the Nation uninterrupted,' he added. 'I reserve the right to excuse myself if the questions and comments derail productive discussion and are not focused on our shared goals of serving the people and moving the Nation forward.'
Nygren said he specifically won't entertain discussions on topics 'rooted in gossip, unsubstantiated information, and are unproductive,' which he said are not appropriate or productive.
Nygren requested that the Navajo Nation Council Delegates submit any questions they would like him to address beforehand, something he said would make the process as productive and orderly as possible.
Nygren's move to provide his state of the address in person comes after the Navajo Nation Council voiced their concerns about his failure to appear and present during the opening of the spring session on Monday.
Although Nygren was expected to deliver his address, he was absent, leaving the council with only a written report.
The Navajo Nation Council stated in a press release that Nygren has failed to appear and present the address to the council and the public four times since he was elected into office.
Nygren's last appearance before the council was on Jan. 27 during the Winter Session, but it abruptly ended when Nygren excused himself and left the Navajo Nation Council chambers before completing his address.
In his memo to the speaker, Nygren said that he left the winter session due to the conduct of some of the delegates present, who he felt 'did not align with the decorum, order and mutual respect expected of naat'áanii (leader).'
Before the spring session, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley filed a subpoena ordering Nygren to appear before the council on April 21 at 10 a.m. to deliver his State of the Navajo Nation address and report.
In a statement posted on social media, Nygren said he was traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with federal partners.
'This trip underscores my commitment to working collaboratively, regardless of political affiliation—be it Republican or Democratic—to advocate for our Nation's needs and priorities,' he wrote on Facebook.
Nygren said that he fulfilled his 'obligations' to the Navajo Nation Council by submitting a written report, which aligns with the requirements of Title 2 of the Navajo Nation Code.
'This action demonstrates my commitment to transparency and accountability to the Navajo people,' he added.
Curley said working with federal partners is important, but the president must also report to the Navajo people and engage in meaningful dialogue with the Council members.
'What we're seeing from President Nygren is a lot of one-way communication directed at the Navajo people through radio, livestreams, newsletters, social media, and now a written report,' Curley said in a press release.
'The Navajo people want to hear President Nygren present his report in person and to have an in-depth dialogue with the Council,' she added. 'Yes, it's important to work with our federal partners, but President Nygren also needs to work with our Diné leaders as he promised when he campaigned for the presidency.'
During Monday's opening day of the spring session, several Navajo Nation Council delegates voiced their concerns about Nygren's administration. They cited repeated absences, unilateral decision-making, and alleged misrepresentations made to both federal partners and the Council.
'We've been patient and willing to work with him,' Navajo Nation Council Delegate Brenda Jesus said. 'But enough is enough. At what point does the Navajo Nation Council show that we mean business? He's not honoring our collaboration — he's mocking it.'
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Vince James said the president's absence was not just disappointing, it was disrespectful to the Navajo people.
'President Nygren is playing games with this body and with our Nation,' James said, adding that Nygren has been scheduling meetings in Washington, D.C., to avoid his responsibility to report to the council.
'His actions are undermining our programs and our sovereignty,' James said.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Andy Nez called on the council to consider hosting a special session to address the ongoing pattern of Nygren's absences.
'The president's absence sends the wrong message,' Nez said. 'We cleared our schedules to be here. His staff knows when the Council meets. He chooses public appearances and media over direct dialogue with this body.'
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Native Americans Hurt by Federal Health Cuts, Despite RFK Jr.'s Promises of Protection
Navajo Nation leaders took turns hiking alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April to detail the tribal nation's priorities to improve access to health care and clean water. They also advocated for the preservation and reestablishment of U.S. government programs that have far-reaching impacts for their nation. (Katheryn Houghton/KFF Health News) WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation leaders took turns talking with the U.S. government's top health official as they hiked along a sandstone ridge overlooking their rural, high-desert town before the morning sun grew too hot. Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, paused at the edge with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Below them, tribal government buildings, homes, and juniper trees dotted the tan and deep-red landscape. Nygren said he wanted Kennedy to look at the capital for the nation of about 400,000 enrolled members. The tribal president pointed toward an antiquated health center that he hoped federal funding would help replace and described life for the thousands of locals without running water due to delayed government projects. Nygren said Kennedy had already done a lot, primarily saving the Indian Health Service from a round of staffing cuts rippling through the federal government. 'When we started hearing about the layoffs and the freezes, you were the first one to stand up for Indian Country,' he told Kennedy, of his move to spare the federal agency charged with providing health care to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. But Nygren and other Navajo leaders said cuts to federal health programs outside the Indian Health Service are hurting Native Americans. 'You're disrupting real lives,' Cherilyn Yazzie, a Navajo council delegate, told KFF Health News as she described recent changes. Kennedy has repeatedly promised to prioritize Native Americans' health care. But Native Americans and health officials across tribal nations say those overtures are overshadowed by the collateral harm from massive cuts to federal health programs. The sweeping reductions have resulted in cuts to funding directed toward or disproportionately relied on by Native Americans. Staffing cuts, tribal health leaders say, have led to missing data and poor communication. The Indian Health Service provides free health care at its hospitals and clinics to Native Americans, who, as a group, face higher rates of chronic diseases and die younger than other populations. Those inequities are attributable to centuries of systemic discrimination. But many tribal members don't live near an agency clinic or hospital. And those who do may face limited services, chronic underfunding, and staffing shortages. To work around those gaps, health organizations lean on other federally funded programs. 'There may be a misconception among some of the administration that Indian Country is only impacted by changes to the Indian Health Service,' said Liz Malerba, a tribal policy expert and citizen of the Mohegan Tribe. 'That's simply not true.' Tribes have lost more than $6 million in grants from other HHS agencies, the National Indian Health Board wrote in a May letter to Kennedy. Janet Alkire, chairperson of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, said at a May 14 Senate committee hearing that those grants paid for community health workers, vaccinations, data modernization, and other public health efforts. The government also canceled funding for programs it said violated President Donald Trump's ban on 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' including one aimed at Native American youth interested in science and medicine and another that helps several tribes increase access to healthy food — something Kennedy has said he wants to prioritize. Tribal health officials say slashed federal staffing has made it harder to get technical support and money for federally funded health projects they run. The firings have cut or eliminated staff at programs related to preventing overdoses in tribal communities, using traditional food and medicine to fight chronic disease, and helping low-income people afford to heat and cool their homes through the Low Income Home Energy Program. The Oglala Sioux Tribe is in South Dakota, where Native Americans who struggle to heat their homes have died of hypothermia. Through mid-May the tribe hadn't been able to access its latest funding installment from the energy program, said John Long, the tribe's chief of staff. Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute at the Seattle Indian Health Board, said the government has sent her organization incomplete health data. That includes statistics about Native Americans at risk for suicide and substance use disorders, which the center uses to shape public health policy and programs. 'People are going to die because we don't have access to the data,' Echo-Hawk said. Her organization is also having trouble administering a $2.2 million federal grant, she said, because the agency handling the money fired staffers she worked with. The grant pays for public health initiatives such as smoking cessation and vaccinations. 'It is very confusing to say chronic disease prevention is the No. 1 priority and then to eradicate the support needed to address chronic disease prevention in Indian Country,' Echo-Hawk said. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy aims to combat chronic diseases and improve well-being among Native Americans 'through culturally relevant, community-driven solutions.' Hilliard did not respond to questions about Kennedy's specific plans for Native American health or concerns about existing and proposed funding and staffing changes. As Kennedy hiked alongside Navajo Nation leaders, KFF Health News asked how he would improve and protect access to care for tribal communities amid rollbacks within his department. 'That's exactly what I'm doing,' Kennedy responded. 'Making sure that all the cuts do not affect these communities.' Kennedy has said his focus on Native American health stems from personal and family experience, something he repeated to Navajo leadership. As an attorney, he worked with tribes on environmental health lawsuits. He also served as an editor at ICT, a major Native American news outlet. The secretary said he was also influenced by his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a child. 'They thought that America would never live up to its moral authority and its role as an exemplary nation around the world if we didn't first look back and remediate or mitigate the original sin of the American experience — the genocide of the Native people,' Kennedy said during his visit. Some tribal leaders say the recent cuts, and the way the administration made them, violate treaties in which the U.S. promised to provide for the health and welfare of tribes in return for taking their land. 'We have not been consulted with meaningfully on any of these actions,' said Malerba, director of policy and legislative affairs for the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, which advocates for tribes from Texas to Maine. Alkire said at the congressional hearing that many Native American health organizations sent letters to the health department asking for consultations but none has received a response. Tribal consultation is legally required when federal agencies pursue changes that would have a significant impact on tribal nations. 'This is not just a moral question of what we owe Native people,' Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said at the hearing. 'It is also a question of the law.' Tribal leaders are worried about additional proposed changes, including funding cuts to the Indian Health Service and a reorganization of the federal health department. Esther Lucero, president and CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board, said the maneuvers remind her of the level of daily uncertainty she felt working through the covid-19 pandemic — only with fewer resources. 'Our ability to serve those who are desperately in need feels at risk,' Lucero said. Among the most pressing concerns are congressional Republicans' proposed cuts to Medicaid, the primary government health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. About 30% of Native American and Alaska Native people younger than 65 are enrolled in Medicaid, and the program helps keep Indian Health Service and other tribal health facilities afloat. Native American adults would be exempt from Medicaid work requirements approved by House Republicans last month. After Kennedy summited Window Rock with Navajo Nation leaders, the tribe held a prayer ceremony in which they blessed him in Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language. President Nygren stressed how meaningful it was for the country's health secretary to walk alongside them. He also reminded Kennedy of the list of priorities they'd discussed. That included maintaining the federal low-income energy assistance program. 'We look forward to reestablishing and protecting some of the services that your department provides,' Nygren said. As of mid-May, the Trump administration had proposed eliminating the energy program, which remains unstaffed. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF. Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing. This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
CBS News
4 days ago
- CBS News
RFK Jr. is struggling to keep his promise to protect Native Americans from health cuts
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation leaders took turns talking with the U.S. government's top health official as they hiked along a sandstone ridge overlooking their rural, high-desert town before the morning sun grew too hot. Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, paused at the edge with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Below them, tribal government buildings, homes, and juniper trees dotted the tan and deep-red landscape. Nygren said he wanted Kennedy to look at the capital for the nation of about 400,000 enrolled members. The tribal president pointed toward an antiquated health center that he hoped federal funding would help replace and described life for the thousands of locals without running water due to delayed government projects. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren talk on the edge of a ridge in Window Rock, Arizona, about the nation's list of health priorities. Katheryn Houghton/KFF Health News Nygren said Kennedy had already done a lot, primarily saving the Indian Health Service from a round of staffing cuts rippling through the federal government. "When we started hearing about the layoffs and the freezes, you were the first one to stand up for Indian Country," he told Kennedy, of his move to spare the federal agency charged with providing health care to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. But Nygren and other Navajo leaders said cuts to federal health programs outside the Indian Health Service are hurting Native Americans. "You're disrupting real lives," Cherilyn Yazzie, a Navajo council delegate, told KFF Health News as she described recent changes. Kennedy has repeatedly promised to prioritize Native Americans' health care. But Native Americans and health officials across tribal nations say those overtures are overshadowed by the collateral harm from massive cuts to federal health programs. The sweeping reductions have resulted in cuts to funding directed toward or disproportionately relied on by Native Americans. Staffing cuts, tribal health leaders say, have led to missing data and poor communication. The Indian Health Service provides free health care at its hospitals and clinics to Native Americans, who, as a group, face higher rates of chronic diseases and die younger than other populations. Those inequities are attributable to centuries of systemic discrimination. But many tribal members don't live near an agency clinic or hospital. And those who do may face limited services, chronic underfunding, and staffing shortages. To work around those gaps, health organizations lean on other federally funded programs. "There may be a misconception among some of the administration that Indian Country is only impacted by changes to the Indian Health Service," said Liz Malerba, a tribal policy expert and citizen of the Mohegan Tribe. "That's simply not true." Tribes have lost more than $6 million in grants from other HHS agencies, the National Indian Health Board wrote in a May letter to Kennedy. Janet Alkire, chairperson of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, said at a May 14 Senate committee hearing that those grants paid for community health workers, vaccinations, data modernization, and other public health efforts. The government also canceled funding for programs it said violated President Trump's ban on "diversity, equity, and inclusion," including one aimed at Native American youth interested in science and medicine and another that helps several tribes increase access to healthy food — something Kennedy has said he wants to prioritize. Tribal health officials say slashed federal staffing has made it harder to get technical support and money for federally funded health projects they run. The firings have cut or eliminated staff at programs related to preventing overdoses in tribal communities, using traditional food and medicine to fight chronic disease, and helping low-income people afford to heat and cool their homes through the Low Income Home Energy Program. The Oglala Sioux Tribe is in South Dakota, where Native Americans who struggle to heat their homes have died of hypothermia. Through mid-May the tribe hadn't been able to access its latest funding installment from the energy program, said John Long, the tribe's chief of staff. Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute at the Seattle Indian Health Board, said the government has sent her organization incomplete health data. That includes statistics about Native Americans at risk for suicide and substance use disorders, which the center uses to shape public health policy and programs. "People are going to die because we don't have access to the data," Echo-Hawk said. Her organization is also having trouble administering a $2.2 million federal grant, she said, because the agency handling the money fired staffers she worked with. The grant pays for public health initiatives such as smoking cessation and vaccinations. "It is very confusing to say chronic disease prevention is the No. 1 priority and then to eradicate the support needed to address chronic disease prevention in Indian Country," Echo-Hawk said. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy aims to combat chronic diseases and improve well-being among Native Americans "through culturally relevant, community-driven solutions." Hilliard did not respond to questions about Kennedy's specific plans for Native American health or concerns about existing and proposed funding and staffing changes. As Kennedy hiked alongside Navajo Nation leaders, KFF Health News asked how he would improve and protect access to care for tribal communities amid rollbacks within his department. "That's exactly what I'm doing," Kennedy responded. "Making sure that all the cuts do not affect these communities." Kennedy has said his focus on Native American health stems from personal and family experience, something he repeated to Navajo leadership. As an attorney, he worked with tribes on environmental health lawsuits. He also served as an editor at ICT, a major Native American news outlet. The secretary said he was also influenced by his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a child. "They thought that America would never live up to its moral authority and its role as an exemplary nation around the world if we didn't first look back and remediate or mitigate the original sin of the American experience — the genocide of the Native people," Kennedy said during his visit. Some tribal leaders say the recent cuts, and the way the administration made them, violate treaties in which the U.S. promised to provide for the health and welfare of tribes in return for taking their land. "We have not been consulted with meaningfully on any of these actions," said Malerba, director of policy and legislative affairs for the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, which advocates for tribes from Texas to Maine. Alkire said at the congressional hearing that many Native American health organizations sent letters to the health department asking for consultations but none has received a response. Tribal consultation is legally required when federal agencies pursue changes that would have a significant impact on tribal nations. "This is not just a moral question of what we owe Native people," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said at the hearing. "It is also a question of the law." Tribal leaders are worried about additional proposed changes, including funding cuts to the Indian Health Service and a reorganization of the federal health department. Esther Lucero, president and CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board, said the maneuvers remind her of the level of daily uncertainty she felt working through the COVID-19 pandemic — only with fewer resources. "Our ability to serve those who are desperately in need feels at risk," Lucero said. Among the most pressing concerns are congressional Republicans' proposed cuts to Medicaid, the primary government health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. About 30% of Native American and Alaska Native people younger than 65 are enrolled in Medicaid, and the program helps keep Indian Health Service and other tribal health facilities afloat. Native American adults would be exempt from Medicaid work requirements approved by House Republicans on May 21. After Kennedy summited Window Rock with Navajo Nation leaders, the tribe held a prayer ceremony in which they blessed him in Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language. President Nygren stressed how meaningful it was for the country's health secretary to walk alongside them. He also reminded Kennedy of the list of priorities they'd discussed. That included maintaining the federal low-income energy assistance program. "We look forward to reestablishing and protecting some of the services that your department provides," Nygren said. As of mid-May, the Trump administration had proposed eliminating the energy program, which remains unstaffed. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Is the oil and gas boom harming New Mexico's students?
Billton Werito and his son Amari in front of a drilling pad near their house in the Counselor Chapter area of the Navajo Nation. (Nadav Soroker/Searchlight New Mexico) COUNSELOR, N.M. – On a Tuesday in March, Billton Werito drove his son Amari toward his house in Counselor, New Mexico, navigating the bumpy dirt road that winds through a maze of natural gas pipelines, wellheads and water tanks. Amari should have been in school, but a bout of nausea and a dull headache kept him from class. 'To me the surprise was certainly the magnitude of the effects' of air pollution on students, said Mike Gilraine, a professor of economics at Simon Fraser University. 'It's hard to find a similar factor that would have such an impact on schools nationwide.' 'It happens a lot,' Amari explained from the backseat, glancing up from his Nintendo Switch. The symptoms usually show up when the sixth-grader smells an odor of 'rotten egg with propane' that rises from nearby natural gas wells and wafts over Lybrook Elementary School, where he and some 70 other Navajo students attend class. His little brother often misses school for the same reason. 'They just keep getting sick,' Amari's father, Billton, said. 'I have to take them out of class because of the headaches. Especially the younger one, he's been throwing up and won't eat.' The symptoms are putting the kids at risk of falling further behind in school. This article first appeared on Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here under a Creative Commons License. Lybrook sits in the heart of New Mexico's San Juan Basin, a major oil and gas deposit that, along with the Permian Basin in the state's southeast, is supplying natural gas that meets much of the nation's electricity demand. The gas pulled from tens of thousands of wells in New Mexico has reaped huge benefits for the entire country. Natural gas has become a go-to fuel for power plants from coast to coast, sometimes replacing dirtier coal-fired plants and, by extension, improving air quality. Locally, oil and gas companies employ thousands of workers, often in areas with few other opportunities, all while boosting the state's budget with billions in royalty payments. But those benefits may come at a cost for thousands of students in New Mexico whose schools sit near oil and gas pipelines, wellheads and flare stacks. An Associated Press analysis of state and federal data found 694 oil and gas wells with new or active permits within a mile of a school in the state. This means that around 29,500 students in 74 schools and pre-schools potentially face exposure to noxious emissions, as extraction from the ground can release unhealthy fumes. At Lybrook, where Amari just finished sixth grade, fewer than 6 percent of students are proficient at math, and only a fifth meet state standards for science and reading proficiency. Other factors could help explain students' poor achievement. Poverty rates are higher in some areas with high levels of gas development, and students at rural schools overall tend to face challenges that can adversely affect academic performance. AP's analysis found that two-thirds of the schools within a mile of an oil or gas well were low-income, and the population is around 24 percent Native American and 45 percent Hispanic. But research has found that student learning is directly harmed by air pollution from fossil fuels — even when socioeconomic factors are taken into account. And it's not just New Mexico where this is a risk. An AP analysis of data from the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker found over 1,000 public schools across 13 states that are within five miles of a major oil or gas field. Major fields are collections of wells that produce the highest amount of energy in a state. 'This kind of air pollution has a real, measurable effect on students,' said Mike Gilraine, a professor of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who studies connections between air quality and student performance. In 2024, Gilraine cowrote a study showing that student test scores were closely associated with air contamination. Each measured increase in PM2.5, a type of pollution created from the burning of fossil fuels, was associated with a significant decline in student test scores, Gilraine found. Conversely, researchers have documented that reductions in air pollution have led to higher test scores and fewer absences. 'To me the surprise was certainly the magnitude of the effects' of air pollution on students, Gilraine said. 'It's hard to find a similar factor that would have such an impact on schools nationwide.' America's shift to natural gas has resulted in substantial increases in student achievement nationwide, Gilraine's research shows, as it has displaced dirtier coal and led to cleaner air on the whole. But there has been little data on air quality across New Mexico, even as it has become one of the most productive states in the nation for natural gas. State regulators have installed only 20 permanent air monitors, most in areas without oil or gas production. Independent researchers have extensively studied the air quality near schools in at least two locations in the state, however. One is Lybrook, which sits within a mile of 17 active oil and gas wells. In 2024, scientists affiliated with Princeton and Northern Arizona universities conducted an air-monitoring study at the school, finding that levels of pollutants — including benzene, a cancer-causing byproduct of natural gas production that is particularly harmful to children — were spiking during school hours, to nearly double the levels known to cause chronic or acute health effects. That research followed a 2021 health impact assessment that was done with support from several local nonprofits and foundations, which analyzed the effects of the area's oil and gas development on residents. The findings were startling: More than 90 percent of people surveyed suffered from sinus problems. Nosebleeds, shortness of breath and nausea were widespread. The report attributed the symptoms to the high levels of pollutants that researchers found — including, near Lybrook, hydrogen sulfide, a compound that gives off the sulfur smell that Amari Werito associated with his headaches. Those studies helped confirm what many community members already knew, said Daniel Tso, a community leader who served on the committee that oversaw the 2021 health impact assessment. 'The children and the grandchildren need a safe homeland,' Tso said during an interview in March, standing outside a cluster of gas wells within a mile of Lybrook Elementary. 'You smell that?' he said, nodding towards a nearby wellhead, which smelled like propane. 'That's what the kids at the school are breathing in. I've had people visiting this area from New York. They spend five minutes here and say, 'Hey, I got a headache.' And the kids are what, six hours a day at the school breathing this?' Lybrook school officials did not respond to requests for comment. Researchers have identified similar air quality problems in New Mexico's southeast. In 2023, a team of scientists from a coalition of universities conducted a detailed, yearlong study of the air in Loving, a small town in the Permian Basin. Local air quality, researchers found, was worse than in downtown Los Angeles, and the tested air contained the fifth-highest level of measured ozone contamination in the U.S. The source of the ozone — a pollutant that's especially hazardous to children — was the area's network of gas wells and related infrastructure. Some of that infrastructure sits within a half-mile of a campus that houses Loving's elementary, middle and high schools. A small group of residents has spoken out about the area's air quality, saying it has caused respiratory problems and other health issues. But for most locals, any concerns about pollution are outweighed by the industry's economic benefits. Representatives of the oil and gas industry have claimed the air quality studies themselves are not trustworthy. 'There needs to be a robust study to actually answer these questions,' said Andrea Felix, vice president of regulatory affairs for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA). Felix said other sources of emissions, such as cars and trucks, are likely a larger source of air quality problems near wells. 'Companies follow the best available science' for well placement and emissions controls, Felix said, and also contribute huge amounts of money to the state's education budget through streams like royalties and direct expenditures. In the most recent fiscal year, oil and gas revenue supported $1.7 billion in K-12 spending in New Mexico, according to a NMOGA report. Officials with Loving Municipal Schools are also skeptical of the alarm over the wells. Loving Superintendent Lee White said the school district used funds from the oil and gas industry to pay for a new wing at the elementary school, a science lab for students, turf on the sports field and training and professional development for teachers. He said the industry's contributions to state coffers can't be ignored. 'Are we willing to give that up because people say our air is not clean?' he said during an interview. 'It's just as clean as anywhere else.' As White spoke, a drill rig worked a couple of miles east of Loving's elementary school while parents poured into the gymnasium to watch kindergartners collect their diplomas. White touted the district's success, saying the elementary school scores above state averages for reading, math and science proficiency, while Loving's high school students far outpace the state average for college and career readiness. But environmental groups, attorneys and residents continue to push for limits on drilling near schools. Those efforts saw a boost in 2023, when New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard issued an executive order prohibiting new oil and gas leases on state-owned land within a mile of schools. Industry representatives decried the move, saying it added potentially insurmountable costs and barriers to drilling operators. However, AP's analysis found that relatively few wells would be impacted even if the rule applied to all of New Mexico; only around 1 percent of oil and gas wells in the state are within a mile of a school. In the years since, residents of areas where exploration is heavy have lobbied for legislation prohibiting gas operations within a mile of schools, regardless of land status. That bill died in committee during the most recent session of the New Mexico legislature. Advocates have also sued the state over an alleged lack of pollution controls. That suit is currently pending in state court. Ed Williams is a staff reporter for Searchlight New Mexico. Susan Montoya Bryan is Southwest Chief Correspondent for the Associated Press. AP journalist Sharon Lurye contributed to this report from New Orleans.
