Today, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED)’s Environmental Improvement Board approved a landmark update to its air quality permit fee structure that increases essential funding for inspections, monitoring, and enforcement. These changes will help deliver stronger protections to frontline communities who need them the most without creating additional burdens to taxpayers.
“The Permian Basin is one of the most active oilfields in the world, and Carlsbad families like mine have paid for that with their health and peace of mind, while oversight agencies were starved of the funding to protect our air quality,” said Haley Jones, organizer with Citizens Caring for the Future. “That imbalance ends today. This rulemaking is long overdue.”
The board unanimously decided in favor of the fee update following three days of public hearing. At the hearing, industry representatives argued that the fee increases were unnecessary, contending that taxpayers, rather than polluters, should shoulder the costs of administering the state’s air quality programs. The updated fee schedules should now be sufficient to cover the reasonable costs of administering New Mexico’s Title V and construction permit programs, as required by the Air Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Air Act. The updated fee schedule will take effect on June 1, 2026.
The public submitted hundreds of comments to the board. In-person testimony was provided by advocates and frontline community members who have been disproportionately exposed to industrial pollution and consistently left out of the decisions that shape their environment. All expressed the hope that this fee adjustment will translate to a more responsive NMED serving the people of New Mexico, including more air monitoring stations, faster enforcement and response to complaints. Twenty-nine state senators and representatives also joined the call for comprehensive funding by submitting a joint letter to the board.
The people of New Mexico have long borne the burden of pollution in the form of respiratory illness, dangerously elevated particulates, and degraded landscapes. This rulemaking begins to rebalance that equation. Industries, not communities and taxpayers, should bear the costs of inspections, monitoring, and enforcement.
“New Mexico’s air quality permit fee structure has been flat for about 20 years, meaning that each year, the Environment Department has had to perform its increasingly complex public health and safety duties with fewer and fewer resources,” said Morgan O’Grady, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “It is fair and proper for industry applicants to bear the true cost to ensure their enterprises do not endanger the communities in which they operate.”
“Current fees were insufficient to fund the enforcement staff that is needed to handle complaints in a timely manner,” said Haley Jones, organizer with Citizens Caring for the Future. “Recent enforcement actions have been related to complaints from nearly four years ago, which is unacceptable. Our communities deserve enforcement actions immediately following complaints, not years later. These enforcement delays cause real harm to people. They mean more asthma attacks and more premature deaths, as well as more costs to our healthcare system. We suffer the consequences of air pollution while corporations profit off our natural resources. These fee increases are critical for the Air Quality Bureau to be able to do its job for all New Mexicans and to enable them to increase their air monitoring network so we can know what is in the air we are breathing.”
“New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light has been working with communities in the Permian Basin for more than 10 years,” said Sister Joan Brown, community advocate with New Mexico and El Paso Interfaith Power and Light. “As people of faith and conscience we are called to care for our kin, our communities and sacred land, water, and air. The region has been in air ozone non-attainment for some time with many people suffering from asthma, bronchial and heart problems related to unchecked oil and gas industry pollution and terrible air quality. The Air Quality Bureau needs adequate and long-term funding for ethical actions, oversight, and accountability. The new fee rules will help our communities.”
“The Environmental Improvement Board’s decision today is great news for the people of New Mexico,” said Nini Gu, senior regulatory & legislative manager at Environmental Defense Fund. “This funding is essential to ensure the Environment Department has the necessary resources to protect communities from the impacts of energy development, which has grown exponentially over the last decade. With more resources, the Environment Department can expand monitoring efforts and build on its progress of cutting harmful oil and gas methane and air pollution. Businesses that profit from New Mexico’s resources have a responsibility to minimize harm, and today’s decision ensures industry, and not taxpayers, cover oversight costs.”
“For too long, New Mexico communities have been left to breathe the consequences of inadequate oversight while polluters faced no real accountability,” said Antoinette Reyes, methane campaign organizer for the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter. “Today’s decision by the Environmental Improvement Board begins to change that. When industries profit from our state’s resources, they must also bear the cost of ensuring our air is safe to breathe — not taxpayers, not families in Carlsbad or Hobbs, not the people already living with ozone non-attainment and elevated methane emissions. This funding gives NMED the tools to do its job. Now we need to make sure those tools are used.”
“As a thermographer, I see firsthand how industrial activity impacts our land, our air, and our health,” said Mandy Sackett, New Mexico lead campaigner at Earthworks and certified thermographer. “This win isn’t just about fees, it’s about ensuring that the true costs of pollution are accounted for, and that our communities have the resources and the voice to demand better. NMED now has more capacity to protect our environment and our future, and that’s a victory for all New Mexicans.”
With the fees now finalized, Earthworks and its partners will push for robust enforcement, compliance and oversight of the oil and gas industry to ensure these resources translate into real, measurable protections for New Mexico’s most impacted communities. Earthworks’ petition to the Environmental Improvement Board in support of the fee adjustments is available here. Other documents related to the rulemaking are available here (click Environmental Improvement Board and then EIB 25-77 under that drop-down menu.
Contacts:
Justin Wasser, Earthworks, 202-758-1670, jwasser@earthworksaction.org.
Morgan O’Grady, Western Environmental Law Center, 703-973-2585, mogrady@westernlaw.org
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