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Why won’t the EPA fine New Mexico’s greenhouse gas leakers?
In the fall of 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired a helicopter equipped with a leak-detecting infrared camera to criss-cross the Permian Basin looking for gaseous emissions, part of a monitoring program undertaken at the behest of and in partnership with the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). Over the course of nine days, the EPA […]
New Mexico county to ease oil and gas drilling rules despite new evidence of health dangers
A mapping project released today by nonprofit environmental groups EarthWorks and FracTracker shows that more than 12.3 million people live within a half-mile of an oil and gas facility in the United States — 144,377 of them in New Mexico. And earlier this month, a mostly rural county just south of Albuquerque passed an ordinance that could […]
Don’t look away: Dr. Peter Kalmus on the United Nations’ latest climate report
Dr. Peter Kalmus looks like a taller, fitter version of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Dr. Randall Mindy, in Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, last year’s climate change movie masquerading as a comet-cataclysm movie. Like DiCaprio’s character in the film written and directed by Adam McKay, Kalmus is also a scientist warning humanity of an impending global calamity, to little […]
New Mexico’s century-old constitution plays into the hands of oil and gas
The 2022 New Mexico regular legislative session ended weeks ago, but many who worked through the session are still scratching their heads over what they saw. Ostensibly, they witnessed a biannual session dedicated to spending the largest state budget in history — a budget built largely on revenue from the oil and gas industry. But […]
Governor resurrects the controversial Hydrogen Hub Act
The email landed in inboxes across New Mexico in the waning days of February, unexpectedly announcing the latest round in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s year-long fight for a hydrogen production center in the state. Without any previous public notice, it unveiled an agreement to create a new regional hydrogen development hub spanning New Mexico, Utah, Colorado […]
New Mexico legislators punt on money for oil and gas inspectors
New Mexico has fewer than 20, on a good day. They are field inspectors — the people who check each state’s oil and gas wells in person for leaks and compliance issues. And New Mexico, the No. 2 oil producing state in the U.S. and No. 7 in natural gas, has fewer than other states, particularly when considering the size of the job before them. Oklahoma parallels New Mexico in natural gas production. All trail New Mexico in oil production.
Lobbyist money hidden in New Mexico politics
A pair of bills proposed by Democratic state Sen. Jeff Steinborn of Las Cruces would require greater disclosures from lobbyists about their money — and by extension their influence on the bills that become law and those that languish in New Mexico. But, he says, “I think their chance of getting passed this session is close […]
New Mexico Republicans line up against environmental bills
Saturday was a big day for environmental issues at the New Mexico Legislature. The House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee had two game-changing bills on their debate plate: HJR2, the Environmental Rights Act, which would amend the state constitution to make a clean and healthy environment a constitutional right, with the state serving as trustee […]
New data show massive climate-warming leaks by NM oil and gas operators
In New Mexico, new state rules sparked a dramatic increase in reported incidents of vented and flared natural gas in 2021 — and reveal that the oil and gas industry has been losing vastly more of the climate-change-driving fossil fuel than previously reported. “The state’s updated reporting requirements were long overdue,” says Jon Goldstein, senior director […]
NM leaders promote hydrogen production despite questionable environmental benefits
Two big hydrogen-based business projects are the cusp of a wave of investment and jobs that New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham hopes to see wash across the state — and they have arrived before her Hydrogen Hub Act had a chance to debut at the upcoming legislative session. That act is to be her signature bill for […]
New Mexico’s draft plan for hydrogen a non-starter for environmentalists
In mid-November, after months of hinting about an upcoming bill, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration sent a draft Hydrogen Hub Act out to stakeholders for their input. First reactions are not positive. “Let’s be crystal clear,” says Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, “this bill isn’t a climate or clean energy bill. […]
New Mexico’s delicate dance to become a center of U.S. hydrogen production
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is on the hunt for federal dollars. In a push to make the state a national center for hydrogen production, she’s pitching a legislative proposal that she says will flatten state government roadblocks and create a new industrial base to re-energize the economy in the San Juan Basin. She wants […]