San Antonio's missions, the first battlefield of the Mexican War and the Guadalupe Mountains that soar to Texas' highest spot are among as many as 30 national parks and historic areas that could be the sites of future oil and gas drilling, according to a new analysis.
The National Park Service identified the locations in response to a request from the left-leaning Center for American Progress, which issued a report Wednesday.
The park service based its list on proximity to oil and gas reserves, existing drilling nearby, and private mineral leases within park boundaries.
On the list in Texas are the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site in Brownsville - the location of the first clash in the Mexican War on May 8, 1846 - and the Guadalupe Mountains National Park about 100 miles east of El Paso. At 8,749 feet above sea level, Guadalupe Peak is Texas' highest elevation.
The topic of drilling in national preserves has attracted new attention with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's energy plan that would let states issue permits for oil and gas projects on federal lands within their borders.
Among other sites that made the list for possible future drilling are Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and Everglades National Park in Florida, as well as the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown, Pa., where one of the jets hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, crashed after passengers intervened.
The San Antonio park is one of several near booming natural gas fields. The Eagle Ford shale lies south of the city.
But don't picture a drilling rig in front of Mission San José just yet.
"You never want to say never, but it's highly unlikely, unless there's some geologic formation that no one knows about," San Antonio energy consultant Silver Vasquez said.
John Lujan, national park superintendent at the missions, agreed that drilling at the missions is unlikely and noted that similar issues come up at parks all over the country.
"If it's not an oil well, it's power transmission lines," he said.
Missions Concepción, San José, San Juan Capistrano and Espada and their grounds are part of the city of San Antonio's Mission Historic District. In the event of drilling, Lujan said, the city's guidelines could help protect the look of the area.
Under Spanish rule, San Antonio's missions offered refuge for indigenous people from disease, starvation and raids by hostile invaders.
It was not immediately clear who owns the mineral rights at the missions. A Bexar County Clerk's Office official said the deeds likely reach back into the county's Spanish archives.
Lujan noted that even the surface ownership can be confusing - Bexar County, the city of San Antonio, the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the National Park Service own slices of the property, he said.
Nearly 700 oil and gas wells already exist in 12 National Park Service sites, including Big Thicket National Preserve in east Texas and Padre Island National Seashore in South Texas.
The park service is updating its regulations governing oil and gas activity. It is the first substantive rewrite of the regulations in three decades.
In the Center for American Progress report, author Jessica Goad says oil and gas drilling "is a dirty business that, if done improperly, has the potential to do substantial harm to national parks and other public lands."
She notes that the activity often comes with a surge in infrastructure development or heavier demands on existing roads and pipelines.
Hiller reported from San Antonio and Dlouhy from Washington.
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