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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 […]
Proposed legislation would dramatically alter New Mexico’s principal oil and gas law
Three bills proposed for the New Mexico legislative session would shift the state’s focus on the oil and gas industry by emphasizing public safety and environmental protections, denying permits and increasing penalties for companies in violation of the law, and making it easier for citizen groups to sue scofflaw operators. The measures would dramatically redirect the […]
Oil and gas operator pays millions for Clean Air Act violations
A recent agreement between an environmental group and an oil and gas company that dramatically cuts excess oilfield pollution at a facility in southern New Mexico could be a model both for quicker resolutions to pollution violations and a legal roadmap for private groups looking to hold fossil fuel companies to account under the Clean […]
New NASA camera spots methane ‘super emitter’ in New Mexico
A news release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory about its new mineral mapping instrument on the International Space Station sent Oil Conservation Division (OCD) employees scrambling the last week in October. The notification, posted to science aficionados around the world, featured the agency’s new ground-scanning camera and led with an image of a massive methane […]
New Mexico oil and gas rules await cash after Democratic sweep
Despite a Democratic sweep of New Mexico state offices and continuing blue majority in the upcoming Legislature, the future of oil and gas regulation remains hazy. Michelle Lujan Grisham returns to the Governor’s Mansion for another four years, after a first term spent initiating some of the nation’s most progressive clean energy incentives and most stringent […]
Fossil fuel money flows to New Mexico Democrats
New Mexico’s Republicans and advocates for oil and gas producers often accuse the state’s ruling Democrats of trying to kill the local fossil fuel industry, but industry donations and agency funding outcomes tell a different story. Democrats hold a lock on all statewide offices and both chambers of the Legislature heading into the midterm elections, […]
A Republican attack ad gets its facts all wrong
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released a dozen negative ads on Oct. 11, none of which say anything about Republican members of Congress or their platforms. Instead, this 11th-hour mudslinging focuses on attacking Democrats — often without basis. And in the case of its smear of Gabe Vasquez, the Democratic challenger in New Mexico’s District 2, the NRCC […]