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After a century, oil and gas problems persist on Navajo lands
It’s a Saturday morning in late June and Garry Jay, a member of the Navajo Nation, pilots a white crew-cab Chevy pickup on a lumpy dirt road across the grasslands north of his house in Shiprock, New Mexico, heading for the round, wood-framed hogan his grandfather built by hand in the 1970s. His route weaves 20 miles […]
New Mexico energy transition proposal would violate ban on ‘fossil fuel development’
After a long pause, New Mexico’s program to distribute grants under a landmark energy transition law is back on track, according to its lead convener. And an updated proposal from a New Mexico community college still seeks money for projects devoted to natural gas production, which run against the overarching goal of the law. One set […]
Industry wants new pipeline on Navajo land scarred by decades of fossil fuel extraction
For the last several months, one of the nation’s largest pipeline operators has gone from one local government meeting on the Navajo Nation to another, outlining plans for what could end up being the country’s longest hydrogen pipeline. At those meetings, representatives from Tallgrass Energy have shown a map indicating the pipeline would run from Shiprock, […]
Capital & Main reporting leads to fines for oil and gas polluters
On Monday, the New Mexico Environment Department announced the second monetary penalty in a week for an oil and gas producer found in violation of state and federal clean air laws. NMED announced a consent decree wherein Matador Resources of Dallas has agreed to pay $1.15 million in fines to the state of New Mexico […]
New Mexico legislature fails IPCC test
On March 18, the New Mexico Legislature wrapped up this year’s two-month session, one fueled by a whopping $9.57 billion budget heavily boosted by oil and gas revenues and lacking any new legislation regulating that industry. Two days later, the United Nations’ climate change authority released its latest report on the state of the planet’s […]
Despite rules, New Mexico oil and gas producers keep polluting
Driving around the Permian Basin in early February, it was impossible to miss. New Mexico has increased its oil production tenfold since 2010 and was the first major oil-producing state to surpass its pre-pandemic output levels — dramatically so. And the evidence is everywhere. At night, strings of drilling rigs light the plains east of Highway 285 between […]
New Mexico senate committee rushes debate on money earmarked for dead bill
An energy bill that died in the New Mexico House of Representatives at the request of the All Pueblo Council of Governors was partially resurrected Wednesday in a Senate Finance Committee hearing that debated — after a fashion — what to do with $50 million previously set aside for the dead bill. But one would be […]
New Mexico’s latest hydrogen bill dies while oil and gas reform act advances
A bill to overhaul New Mexico’s 88-year-old Oil and Gas Act passed out of its first committee hearing this week on a straight party vote, while a bill that would have promoted hydrogen production from natural gas disappeared from the Legislature’s calendar. The latest version of the Advanced Technology Energy Act, HB12, died quietly over the weekend […]
Toxic water project sparks controversy with Navajo neighbors
In October 2021, workers from a water treatment company irrigated a 10 x 20 foot test plot of scrubby grass on an oil well site near a Navajo Nation chapter house in northwest New Mexico. The grass thickened, grew and later shriveled under the high desert sun and drought. Even so, it nourished a statewide, petroleum-based […]
Enforcement of oil and gas regulations under threat in New Mexico legislature
As the 2023 New Mexico legislative session rolls up to its halfway point, the state’s volunteer legislators have reoriented themselves to the Roundhouse and caught up with where they left off at the end of the 2022 session. Over the last two weeks, the number and pace of hearings, as well as the number of bills […]
Flaring and venting spike in December cold snap
December saw dramatic increases in the quantity of natural gas flared and vented by oil and gas operators in New Mexico compared to the previous month, according to new monthly statistics reported to the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (OCD). The amounts are far and away the largest in the monthly reports since the state […]
New Mexico’s legislative session, funded by oil and gas, promises fireworks
New Mexico headed into its 56th legislative session last week, and while much of the early talk from legislators and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham centered on money for childhood development programs, social programs and tax rebates, the big background story of this year’s session is oil and gas money and how the state is going […]