2021 Legislative Priorities

The 2021 New Mexico Legislative session runs from January 19 through March 20. This post contains are summaries and links for some of our top priority bills ...

2021 Legislative Tracker

See a list of priority bills for the current session that the Rio Grande Chapter is watching ...

2020 – Year in Review

2020 – Year in Review
It was a tumultuous year. We had major victories and a few setbacks ...
To’hajiilee gets water, but at what price? 
On Nov. 19,  the Navajo Nation, Western Albuquerque Land Holdings (WAHL) and Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility announced an agreement on a pipeline easement to allow the Village of To’hajiilee to access desperately needed water.  ...
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 ...
Sierra Club Praises Haaland Nomination for Department of the Interior
Rep. Haaland has championed the environment and public lands during her tenure in Congress and has introduced legislation to make parks and monuments more welcoming by removing racist, anti-Indigenous and offensive names from public spaces. As Interior Secretary she will be uniquely positioned to build on her efforts to strengthen nation-to-nation relationships with Native Tribes. Haaland would be the first Native American to hold a cabinet position.  ...
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 ...