The chapter sent the following letter on the Dakota Access Pipeline to Sens. Heinrich and Udall and Reps. Lujan and Lujan Grisham on September 8, 2016.
Rio Grande Chapter
1807 Second Street, Suite 45
Santa Fe, N.M. 87505
(505) 983-2703
Senator Tom Udall via michelle_kavanaugh@tomudall.senate.gov
Senator Martin Heinrich via zach_aronow@heinrich.senate.gov
Representative Ben R. Lujan via Nicholas.maestas@mail.house.gov
Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham via Elizabeth.reitzel@mail.house.gov
September 8, 2016
Dear Congressional Delegates,
The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club has 7,500 members in New Mexico and is united in standing with the First Peoples of Standing Rock to demand the immediate stop to the illegal proceedings of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The 1100-mile four state pipeline has been allowed to start ...
On Monday, August 15, NASA released a study on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. The report, based on intensive aerial surveys and ground crews, is a follow-up on the 2014 satellite report that initially found the “hotspot” in the region, and sought to further identify and explain its causes.
The study identified 250 large methane plumes emitted from well pads, storage tanks, pipelines, gas processing plants, and venting from the San Juan coal mine. The new study found that roughly half of basin-wide methane emissions identified in a prior study come from more than 250 very large polluters that were detected by intensive NASA aerial surveys and ground crews ...
By Miya King-Flaherty, Chapter Public Lands fellow
In June, the Bureau of Land Management announced that it would postpone a planned lease of three Chaco Canyon-area parcels intended for oil and gas development until at least January.
But the BLM’s Farmington Field Office has already approved nearly 300 wells for horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and has leased roughly 91% of public lands in the greater Chaco Canyon area.
The BLM claims to thoroughly review the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of drilling in the area, but no report back to the affected community members has been made. Oil and gas companies continue to expand their operations in close proximity to residents’ homes, impacting air quality, community well-being, and the ...
A long-awaited piece of federal legislation, the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Conservation Act, was introduced by U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich on June 10. This legislation would designate around 240,000 acres of the new Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument as “Wilderness.”
Click here to send a thank-you note to Sens. Udall and Heinrich.
This permanent Wilderness designation will assure higher levels of protection for the landscapes, wildlife, archeological and historic resources located in these especially rough and fragile portions of the 486,000-acre Monument. The Wilderness designation doesn’t allow motorized vehicles and will have a more protective management plan than the rest of the monument and prevents most development in the designated area.
“After working with many groups, governments, agencies ...
Mark Allison,
Executive Director, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
A broad-based coalition of conservationists, sportsmen, businesses and pueblos continues to build public support for protecting 120,000 acres of roadless areas adjacent to the existing Pecos Wilderness.
This citizen proposal seeks to permanently protect these special areas from commercial development and extractive industry through federal legislation through a combination of Wilderness and Special Management Area designations.
The proposal area includes federal public lands within the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests in five counties. County commissions in Santa Fe and San Miguel have already passed resolutions in support as have Picuris, Nambe, Pojoaque, Taos and Okay Owingeh pueblos. We are currently working with communities in Taos County and hope to gain ...
For Immediate Release
May 4, 2016
Citizen Groups Challenge Fracking in Santa Fe National Forest
Legal Push Part of Broader Effort to Safeguard Greater Chaco from Oil and Gas Industry
Contacts:
Kyle Tisdel, Western Environmental Law Center, 575-613-8050, tisdel@westernlaw.org
Samantha Ruscavage-Barz, WildEarth Guardians, 505-401-4180, sruscavagebarz@wildearthguardians.org
Mike Eisenfeld, San Juan Citizens Alliance, 505-360-8994, mike@sanjuancitizens.org
Rachel Conn, Amigos Bravos, 575-770-8327, rconn@amigosbravos.org
Teresa Seamster, Sierra Club, 505-983-2703, ctc.seamster@gmail.com
Carol Davis, Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, 928-221-7859, caroljdavis.2004@gmail.com
SANTA FE, NM — In a bid to protect New Mexico’s water, air, and climate, a coalition of environmental groups filed suit yesterday challenging the Obama administration’s plan to allow fracking in the Santa Fe National Forest.
The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service ...
By Mona Blaber
The battle between the citizens of Sandoval County and oil and gas developers has seen many twists and turns in the past three months.
The county’s Planning and Zoning Commission initially appeared prepared to recommend to the county commission an application from financially troubled SandRidge Energy to drill an exploratory oil well just 2 miles outside of Rio Rancho.
But after a surge of citizen activism, including thousands of messages to commissioners and hundreds of residents packing meetings, the zoning commission found SandRidge’s application didn’t meet existing zoning requirements.
At its next meeting, the county commission was expected to deny the application and consider a moratorium on new drilling while it updated its ordinances to address oil ...
By Richard Barish,
Central Group Bosque Issues chair
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has disregarded his agreement on a process for public involvement in Bosque decisions in order to rush through plans to extend the developed Bosque trail this winter for another 1.2 miles, from the I-40 bridge to Campbell Road.
The Administration created an uproar in February 2015 when it began construction of the first phase of its Bosque development in the middle of a promised public process, short-circuiting public involvement. In order to avoid such an uproar in the future, the Administration entered into an agreement with the Sierra Club and the Bosque Action Team that established a good public process for future Bosque projects. The agreement was finalized in ...
