Earlier this month, about 4,000 acres of federal land in northern Arizona were put up for auction for oil and gas development.
According to the Arizona Daily Sun, which published a story from Cronkite News, more than 3,000 of those acres, near Petrified Forest National Park, went to a Canadian company — Desert Mountain Energy Corp.
What the company hopes to get out of the deal is helium. The Holbrook Basin area is rich in helium, according to the Arizona Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Desert Mountain Corporation already leases nearly 37,000 acres in the area for helium production.
The energy company says drilling for helium there won’t have a big impact on the environment, but an environmental group in Arizona disagrees.
The Center for Biological Diversity says drilling would threaten the region’s groundwater.
Taylor McKinnon, with the Center for Biological Diversity, joined The Show to talk about it.
