Advocates force BLM to improve Colorado River Valley drilling plan

Sep 19, 2019 | News Release, Protecting the Colorado River Valley From Fossil Fuel Development

The Western Environmental Law Center, Wilderness Workshop, Western Colorado Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club recently won an important victory in Federal District Court. The lawsuit challenged BLM’s 2015 Resource Management Plan (the...

Protecting the Sonoran Desert Tortoise

Sep 5, 2019 | Wildlife

Protecting the Sonoran Desert Tortoise The Sonoran Desert tortoise is a newly recognized tortoise species found in desert scrub habitats in Arizona and Mexico, east and south of the Colorado River. In 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found in a preliminary...

NM conservation, labor, and community groups file with state Supreme Court to clarify Energy Transition Act applies to San Juan Generating Station closure

Aug 30, 2019 | News Release, Speeding the Transition From Coal in the Southwest

New Mexico environmental, community, and labor advocates, as well as Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), filed a motion yesterday with the state Supreme Court asking the court to clarify that the Energy Transition Act applies to proceedings on PNM’s closure...

New Mexicans speak out against EPA weakening oil and gas protections even further

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...

NM environmental community releases guidance for state methane waste rule

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,...

Back to court: Trump admin still fracking Greater Chaco, forcing new lawsuit

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...

NEPA Rollback

Jul 1, 2019 | Climate & Energy

Protecting NEPA – The Environmental Magna Carta The SPEED Act: Congress is pursuing a bill called the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act (H.R. 4776). This deceptively titled bill was crafted solely to hamstring the nation’s...

Bernhardt’s promise to protect Chaco park highlights need for comprehensive land management planning

May 30, 2019 | News Release, Protecting Chaco Canyon From Fracking

Environmental and Indigenous groups a part of the Greater Chaco Coalition are thanking Senator Martin Heinrich for facilitating Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s visit to Chaco Culture National Historical Park on Tuesday, but are concerned that...

Crazy Mountains Photos

May 29, 2019 | Wildlands

Crazy Mountains maps/trail photos 1925 National Forest Map showing numbered trails (in white) at focus of court case. Absaroka National Forest was later rolled into the Gallatin-Custer National Forest. Click for larger image. Original here. (Above Photo: Forest...

Reps. DeGette, Lujan, Haaland introduce gold-standard methane legislation

May 14, 2019 | News Release, Reducing Methane Pollution on Public Lands: BLM/EPA Waste Rules

Today, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) introduced the Methane Waste and Prevention Act of 2019, a bill that would enact common-sense and cost-effective solutions to reduce methane waste and pollution from oil and gas operations on public lands, protect taxpayers,...