A new geospatial analysis released by Earthworks today shows 144,377 New Mexicans including 38,749 children, reside near or attend schools or daycares within a ½ mile threat radius of active oil and gas operations. In the San Juan Basin nearly 80% of the population lives within this radius. In the NM Permian Basin the map shows a nearly 40% increase in Lea County alone of people living within the threat radius since 2017 ... Read More

Utility agrees to drop hydrogen-blending pilot, cut proposed rate increase in half, advocate for legislation enabling low-income utility rates For immediate release: May 23, 2022 On Friday, Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, Western Resource Advocates, PRC staff, the New Mexico attorney general, New Mexico Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance, New Energy Economy, and Incorporated County of Los Alamos reached an agreement with New Mexico Gas Company on its rate case, which had included plans to charge customers for a pilot to blend hydrogen into its gas supply and for compressed-natural-gas (CNG) fueling stations.  The settlement included: 

• Agreement that NM Gas ... Read More

Commenters demand more meaningful protections for Greater Chaco and greater involvement of impacted communities For Immediate Release: May 6, 2022 (Photos) Santa Fe, NM – Today, the Greater Chaco Coalition/Frack Off Chaco, composed of environmental justice advocates, Indigenous grassroots organizations, tribal community leaders, and members of the public, rallied and delivered nearly 80,000 comments to the Bureau of Land Management demanding greater protections for the Greater Chaco Landscape and surrounding communities from expanded oil and gas activities. Today’s rally coincided with the deadline to submit comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to stop new oil and gas leasing ... Read More

Standards mean more electric cars will be available in New Mexico, possibly as early as this year FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2022 CONTACT: Tammy Fiebelkorn, SWEEP, tfiebelkorn@swenergy.org, Liliana Castillo, media@nmcleancarscleanair.com, 575.219.9619 On Thursday, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board and the City of Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board voted to adopt Advanced Clean Cars Standards after two days of public hearings and a robust stakeholder engagement process over the past year. The standards will require automakers to provide increasing percentages of electric and low-emission vehicles in New Mexico. The Advanced Clean Car I Standards will go into effect for ... Read More

New Mexico has proposed Advanced Clean Cars standards that the state Environmental Improvement Board are now considering. Please urge the board to adopt these rules and move on to Clean Trucks rules as soon as possible! New Mexico’s proposed Clean Cars standards are a great opportunity to make climate progress while making affordable, clean electric vehicles much more accessible in our state. We know we must end our dangerous dependence on oil and gas both to protect our children’s climate and protect our national security from oligarchs and dictators. Moving from gas-guzzling cars to electric vehicles is a great way ... Read More

Photo: Reporters film Earthwork’s Pete Dronkers with an infrared camera at one of the Four Corners sites that a NASA report found to be a ‘super-emitter’ of invisible methane gas. CONTACT: Camilla Feibelman, camilla.feibelman@sierraclub.org, 505.715.8388 New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board adopts nation-leading air pollution rules for oil and gas operators Conservation, public health, and community leaders from across New Mexico applauded the Environmental Improvement Board’s April 14 preliminary approval of final ozone precursor regulations for oil and gas production and processing. This includes nation-leading safeguards that address equipment leaks and malfunctions that account for 70% of the industry’s methane emissions. This ... Read More

Statement on President Biden’s ban on Russian oil imports For Immediate Release: March 8, 2022 Contact: Miya King-Flaherty, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, miya.king-flaherty@sierraclub.org, (505) 301 – 0863 Oil and gas supply and revenue are weapons used by Russian oligarchs and criminals, and our dependence on oil and gas is a threat to our national security.  It is long past time to take away these weapons, which are subsidizing the war and creating the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine, by accelerating our transition to clean energy. Wind and solar energy don’t fuel wars and violence.  U.S. fossil-fuel corporations are shamelessly ... Read More

Rio Grande Sierra Club outings for April-June 2022 ... Read More

If New Mexico’s 30-day legislative session ended at noon today with what felt like a series of big news and crashes and burns, that's in part because lawmakers introduced and New Mexicans fought for some of the strongest and most transformational climate and democracy legislation in years, compressed into a crushing timeline that has always been inadequate to suit New Mexico's needs.  ... Read More

The New Mexico Supreme Court today rejected New Energy Economy’s challenges to the constitutionality of the Energy Transition Act (ETA) and upheld the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) decision relating to the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station. These rulings end months of delays in sending transition funds to communities and issuing bonds that will reduce customer costs ... Read More

Revisit some of the key environment- and justice-related events of 2021 ... Read More