News & Updates

Fish & Wildlife Service agrees to reverse course, reconsider Sonoran Desert tortoise for Endangered Species Act protection

Aug 3, 2020

Conservationists have brokered an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) to go back and reconsider its 2015 decision not to protect the Sonoran Desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The agreement – approved by a federal court...

New Mexico PRC embraces 100% renewable future for Four Corners

Jul 29, 2020

Today, New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) voted unanimously to replace San Juan Generating Station power with 100% renewable energy when the coal-fired power plant is retired in 2022. This decision will modernize power generation, improve public health, and...

Nationwide coalition sues to defend the people’s environmental law

Jul 29, 2020

A nationwide coalition of organizations from the environmental justice, outdoor recreation, and conservation communities filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attack on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) this afternoon. The administration...

Statement: NM releases draft rule to cut methane from oil and gas

Jul 20, 2020

Today the New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department and the New Mexico Environment Department released their long-awaited rules to reduce methane waste and pollution from the oil and gas industry in the state. WELC’s Dr. Thomas Singer, who...

Federal Court Rejects Trump Administration Cancellation of Methane Pollution Rule

Jul 16, 2020

A federal judge late yesterday reinstated the Bureau of Land Management’s 2016 methane waste rule, aimed at protecting people and the climate from methane waste and pollution from oil and gas extraction on public lands. The ruling is the third defeat for the Trump...

Trump administration guts National Environmental Policy Act

Jul 15, 2020

Today, the Trump administration finalized its proposal to gut more than 40 years of settled environmental law. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released the final text of a sweeping rule which will eviscerate core components of the National...

Outdoor recreation and conservation advocates challenge EPA rule granting industry priority over state, public in clean water decisions

Jul 13, 2020

Citing breathtaking levels of overreach, conservation, fishing, and paddling advocates today filed a complaint in federal court challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final rule effectively sidelining the role the states and the public have long...

Court challenge: Feds cut out public on 40,802-acre NM oil and gas leases

Jul 9, 2020

Moving to protect the climate, public health, and to further environmental justice, a coalition today filed suit to overturn the sale of leases on nearly 41,000 acres of public land in New Mexico for oil and gas drilling. The Bureau of Land Management (the Bureau) did...

Advocates deal Trump another loss: Yellowstone Grizzlies to stay on endangered list

Jul 8, 2020

Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration and state of Wyoming’s appeal of a 2018 decision restoring endangered species protections for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population of grizzly bears. The original decision halted...

Court orders USFS to revise massive logging plan to protect roadless big game habitat on Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest

Jul 6, 2020

Late last week, a federal judge shelved portions of a logging plan on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest known as the Tenmile-South Helena Project (“Tenmile project,” map) until the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) can ensure protections for roadless big game...