News & Updates
Groups to Biden: Halt new oil drilling, cancel Trump leases on public lands
Climate, indigenous and conservation groups today called on the Biden administration to halt new drilling permits and to cancel unlawful Trump-era oil and gas leases on public lands. The letter urges the Interior Department to enact a range of interim actions to...
Montana joins states seeking to insert themselves into Juliana v. United States as adversaries of youth plaintiffs
Six years after attorneys filed the landmark constitutional climate change case Juliana v. United States – and just days before settlement talks were scheduled between the youth plaintiffs and the government – attorneys general from 17 states, including Montana, have...
NM state trust lands bonding report reveals monumental oil and gas industry clean-up assurance shortfall
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...
Certainty Act would power clean energy transition, stabilize state, Tribal budgets
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...
Climate lawsuit challenges fracking plan that threatens 3 national forests in Colorado
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 new...
New Mexico Environment Department’s proposed methane air pollution rules much improved
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...
Memo: Trump admin knew, didn’t care slashing habitat would likely cause northern spotted owl extinction
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...
Historic climate victory: Senate votes to restore EPA methane safeguards, reject Trump’s reckless rollback
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...
PNM/Avangrid merger: Coalition secures $12.5M in “just transition” funding, pathway to better future for NM fossil-fuel impacted communities
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...
Three things to watch for in NMED’s next draft of oil and gas air pollution rules
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)...
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