Aug 29, 2019 | News Release, Reducing Methane Pollution on Public Lands: BLM/EPA Waste Rules
Today, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler proposed to eliminate direct regulation of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, from the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards. In New Mexico, this would mean that 4,700 new and existing wells would...
Aug 28, 2019 | News Release, Reducing Methane Pollution on Public Lands: BLM/EPA Waste Rules
Today, advocacy groups in New Mexico concerned about methane waste from the oil and gas industry released a set of core principles to guide the state as it begins its next step in developing a rule to prevent waste and safeguard taxpayers, public health, the climate,...
Aug 26, 2019 | News Release
Conservation and public interest groups today submitted formal opposition to a proposed Trump administration rule that would fundamentally change long-held environmental practices and allow for the sweeping destruction of national forests across the country. In...
Aug 15, 2019 | News Release
Today, environmental and tribal advocates celebrated a victory protecting land, water, and communities from the development of up to 8,000 new gas wells in San Juan and Rio Arriba counties of northwest New Mexico, part of the Greater Chaco region. After nearly a year...
Aug 12, 2019 | News Release
Today, the Trump administration announced sweeping changes to the way its agencies will administer the Endangered Species Act (ESA), one of the oldest, most effective, and most widely supported environmental laws in U.S. history. These changes, which seek to...
Aug 7, 2019 | News Release
The Trump administration has reauthorized use of sodium cyanide in wildlife-killing devices called M-44s. These “cyanide bombs” received approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency despite inhumanely and indiscriminately killing thousands of animals...
Aug 7, 2019 | News Release
An Oregon judge has issued a decision concluding the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission violated Oregon law in denying a petition filed by five conservation groups demanding the commission uplist the murrelet from threatened to endangered under the Oregon Endangered...
Aug 1, 2019 | News Release, Protecting Chaco Canyon From Fracking
In the wake of a federal appeals court win in May, a coalition today filed a new lawsuit and request for a restraining order (link will be added here when available) to defend the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico from illegal oil and gas drilling. Today’s...
Jul 29, 2019 | News Release
Conservation groups protested a Trump administration plan today that would expand federal fossil-fuel development in southwestern Colorado, threatening climate, wildlife and recreation. The Uncompahgre Resource Management Plan would allow increased fracking, which...
Jul 1, 2019 | News Release
The Western Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit public-interest environmental law firm, is proud to announce the addition of author and conservationist Brooke Williams to its board of directors. Brooke’s conservation career spans 30 years, most recently as field...