May 20, 2021 | News Release
The New Mexico State Land Office released a report today enumerating the degree to which New Mexico’s oil and gas industry has failed to assure payment for its responsibilities to plug and reclaim wells and other industry sites: a staggering gap of $8.1 billion. The...
May 13, 2021 | News Release
New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich is soon expected to introduce the Schools and State Budgets Certainty Act of 2021. The Act would stabilize state, county, and Tribal revenues from oil and gas production on federal public lands to provide time to transition budgets...
May 10, 2021 | News Release
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service’s 2020 approval of a plan that allows fracking across 35,000 acres of Colorado’s Western Slope. The North Fork Mancos Master Development Plan allows 35...
May 6, 2021 | News Release
Today, the New Mexico Environment Department proposed new rules to limit emissions from oil and gas operations in the state by requiring companies to detect and repair leaks as well as control other pollution sources. The new rules aim to elevate New Mexico’s position...
May 6, 2021 | News Release
On the same day as the Trump administration announced the elimination of 3.4 million acres of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s top owl expert formally objected to the decision in a document recently unearthed as part...
Apr 28, 2021 | News Release
Today, Senate Democrats and Republicans voted to restore Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safeguards to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas development, rejecting a major Trump-administration rollback. Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 80...
Apr 26, 2021 | News Release
Tribal and conservation groups secured significant community investment and other benefits as part of a proposed settlement in the merger case between PNM Resources and Avangrid, an energy company pursuing a transition away from fossil fuels. Community groups have...
Apr 22, 2021 | News Release
By Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, WELC and Jon Goldstein, EDF Now that the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division has finalized strong new rules governing venting and flaring from oil and gas wells, all eyes are turning to the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED)...
Apr 19, 2021 | News Release
Farmers and ranchers, conservation, recreation, and Tribal groups filed motions to intervene today to defend the Biden administration’s pause on federal oil and gas leasing pending the Department of Interior’s comprehensive review of the program. This action...
Apr 16, 2021 | News Release
Today, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued two secretarial orders to chart a course for the department’s future—a future animated by the imperative to take climate action, honor commitments to Indigenous peoples, and invest in a clean energy future. In so doing, the...