Statements on Congressional Review Act resolution for methane safeguards
On March 25, Senators Heinrich, King, and Markey and Majority Leader Schumer introduced a resolution in the Senate and U.S. Reps. DeGette, Peters, and Lamb introduced a resolution in the House that would reinstate the Environmental Protection Agency's 2016 methane pollution safeguards ...
HB9 Climate Solutions Act Introduced
Community leaders across New Mexico today applauded the introduction of the Climate Solutions Act (HB 9), highlighting its science-based approach and focus on historically disadvantaged communities. They called on state legislators to protect public health and New Mexico’s air and water resources from climate change and to accelerate a just transition to a more diversified and resilient economy built by and for everyday New Mexicans ...
Photo of PNM's San Juan Coal Fired Generator Plant for the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter website
A surprise merger, New Mexico’s biggest electric utility exiting the state’s biggest coal plant and the potential acquisition of that share by Navajo Transitional Energy Company all have big implications for Four Corners communities, Navajo Nation, ratepayers and the coal plant’s lifespan ...

What can Biden do? 

What can Biden do? 
If there’s any good news about the Trump administration, it must be that they were massively incompetent in pursuing the dismantlement of environmental regulation. Environmental lawyers have stopped many of these efforts, or held them up in courts, so that the new Administration can now reverse the legal positions of the Trump/Barr lawyers. Each of Trump’s actions has to be approached carefully, especially with a Supreme Court that we can presume to be hostile to environmental regulation ...
PRC cites ETA in rejecting El Paso Electric gas expansion
On December 16, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission unanimously denied El Paso Electric's request to build a 228-MW natural-gas generator, citing EPE’s failure to consider the requirements of the Energy Transition Act ...
State approves energy-saving building codes
We can all breath a bit easier now, because New Mexico has finally updated its Energy Conservation Code. This brings New Mexico up to date with its energy code for new buildings, reducing energy use in new residential and commercial buildings by about 25 percent ...
Federal policy lets big oil off cheap
With 3 million acres of public land currently leased to oil and gas companies for exploration and drilling, New Mexico is the largest producer of oil from federal lands in the country. The policies governing how these lands are managed and leased haven’t been updated for a century, and companies are getting a sweetheart deal to develop under the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” regime ...

Protecting the Checkerboard

Protecting the Checkerboard
The area in and around Counselor, NM is made up of a “checkerboard” of various jurisdictions; federal, state, tribal, private, and allotment. The people most impacted by decisions – the Navajo Nation – generally are excluded from the decision-making process ...