News & Updates

WELC statement in opposition to NM HB12: The Advanced Energy Technology Act

Feb 24, 2023

WELC is opposed to HB12, the Advanced Energy Technology Act, introduced in New Mexico’s 2023 legislative session. We fully support the creation of an Economic Transition and Justice Division to provide essential, long-needed support for New Mexico workers and...

Jenna M.A. Kloeppel joins WELC staff as development director

Feb 21, 2023

The Western Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit public-interest environmental law firm, is proud to announce Jenna M.A. Kloeppel as its new development director. Jenna comes to WELC with 10 years of experience in fundraising and sales in the arts. She has worked for...

Sen. Jaramillo introduces bill to modernize 1935 Oil & Gas Act

Feb 15, 2023

New Mexico Sen. Leo Jaramillo (D-5) of Rio Arriba County introduced the New Mexico Oil and Gas Justice and Reform Act (SB 418) to modernize the 1935 Oil and Gas Act. The bill, supported by a broad range of New Mexico community groups, aims to ensure that any...

Landmark court ruling will protect water sources, ranchers near Bull Mountains underground coal mine

Feb 13, 2023

A federal judge in Montana District Court has halted the mining of federal coal at Signal Peak Energy’s Bull Mountains Underground Coal Mine near Roundup, pending a thorough analysis of the mine’s impacts on ranchers, vital water sources, and the surrounding...

Legal filing targets North Dakota’s latest lawsuit to force more oil and gas lease sales on public lands

Feb 9, 2023

Climate and conservation groups defended the Biden administration in a brief filed today responding to a lawsuit brought by North Dakota seeking to force the federal government to hold more oil and gas lease sales in the state. North Dakota sued last month, claiming...

Conservation groups to defend Biden administration postponement of oil, gas lease sales

Feb 8, 2023

Seventeen groups represented by Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center moved to intervene (legal documents available at end of release, one for each case) today to defend the Biden administration’s postponement of several oil and gas lease sales. A...

Federal appeals court rejects oil and gas drilling and fracking in northwest New Mexico’s Greater Chaco region

Feb 2, 2023

A federal appeals court yesterday rejected the Biden administration’s defense of unchecked oil and gas fracking in the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico, ruling the U.S. Interior Department flouted the law when approving 199 drilling permits in the...

Lawsuit filed to defend climate, clean air from fracking in NM Permian

Jan 23, 2023

Conservation groups, led by citizens from Carlsbad, N.M., filed suit today to overturn the Biden administration’s approval of nearly 6,000 acres of oil and gas leases in southeast New Mexico’s Permian Basin. Originally authorized by the Trump administration, the...

Federal wildlife-killing program challenged in Montana

Jan 18, 2023

Today, four conservation organizations challenged the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Wildlife Services predator killing program in Montana. The legal challenge also includes the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approving the program's killing and removal...

Legal appeal: Ecology’s rewrite of industrial dairy permits endangers public health; threatens waterways, aquifers, ecosystems across WA

Jan 10, 2023

Late last week, community, environmental, and food safety advocates challenged two permits that will allow industrial animal feeding operations to continue to discharge pollution into Washington’s waters. A unanimous 2021 Washington Court of Appeals decision required...