Rio Grande Chapter

By Jody Benson, Group newsletter editor What happened with the bag? Not enough of us showed up; Council didn’t have enough votes to pass the 10-cent fee; the Savethebaggers showed up in vocal droves. The motion that finally passed the Council was simply to “Continue to Educate.” The Republicans on the Council don’t want to “spend County money on a thing this trivial,” so the mandate is that it’s up to the citizens — you, us — to do the educating ...
Read More

By Craig O’Hare If you’re a PNM customer, around 90 percent of your electricity is coming from coal, nuclear and natural gas power plants hundreds of miles away. Why not have most of your electricity come via the clean, renewable sun from panels a few feet above your head on your roof? Getting off of fossil fuels has always been the right thing to do with respect to the environment, public health and preventing global climate disruption. In the past, ...
Read More

Land of My Heart By Beverly Marley-Loftus Southwestern New Mexico – Land of my heart, Your vast sweep of desert sends chills From my toes to the nape of my neck. My soul sprouts wings like a bird And circles your far horizons As some day my dust will do. My joyful crys echo from canyon wall To canyon wall, From mountain to mountain, Shape-changing mountains ‘Neath the magical spell of clouds. Scoured by wind, scorched by sun, Lit by ...
Read More

By Sandrine Gaillard, Northern New Mexico Group Switch to Solar NOW has been the message carried through by our dedicated Solar Summer 2015 team, a joint effort among Sierra Club members, officials and residents of Santa Fe County, the City of Santa Fe and the state of New Mexico. It is time to focus our efforts for another 14 months to Solarize Santa Fe while state and federal tax credits remain in effect, allowing every homeowner in New Mexico who ...
Read More

By Jim Tolbert El Pasoans, including members of State Sen. José Rodriguez’s Sustainable Energy Advisory Committee, are coalescing around a plan to stop the El Paso Electric Company’s attempt to kill the solar energy industry in El Paso. Not only does EPE want to raise everyone’s rates by as much as 12 percent, it wants to penalize photovoltaic solar energy users with a 24 percent increase. Recently Eco El Paso, an organization that promotes eco‐sensitive and energy-efficient community planning, building ...
Read More

By Teresa Seamster, Northern New Mexico Group, and Robert Tohe, Our Wild America A massive surge of approvals by BLM and the Oil Conservation Division for oil companies like WPX and Encana to drill closer to native communities near Chaco Canyon led to a recent meeting of concerned groups with U.S. Sen. Tom Udall’s legislative staff in Santa Fe. Sierra Club, Navajo allottee and former councilor Daniel Tso, staff member Robert Tohe and Western Environmental Law Center advocates met with ...
Read More

By Fred Houdek, Central New Mexico Group The Rio Grande Chapter and Central Group have recently relocated to a new office in Albuquerque. The address is 2215 Lead Ave. SE, Albuquerque, N.M., 87106. It is on the north side of Lead Avenue, a block east of Yale. It is the last unit in a little strip mall with a laundromat, Duggan’s Coffee Cafe, and a piñata shop. We hosted an open house in September at the new location, which is three ...
Read More

By Mona Blaber, Rio Grande Chapter communications coordinator On Aug. 27, PNM filed a rate-hike request after its first request was rejected by the Public Regulation Commission. PNM’s first rate request earlier this year included a steep monthly fee for those who install solar panels on their rooftops, as well as a 12 percent rate hike for all customers. The PRC rejected that request after the commission’s hearing examiner said PNM hadn’t provided enough information to support its requests. After considerable ...
Read More

By Allyson Siwik, Gila Resources Information Project and Rio Grande Chapter executive committee We watched in horror and sadness as an orange plume of mine wastewater flowed down the Animas River from an accidental release at the inactive Gold King Mine in Colorado in August, impacting communities, farmers, wildlife and recreation along the way. Our thoughts are with the people who have been adversely affected, and those who have worked around the clock to restore the watersheds contaminated by the accident ...
Read More

By Mary Katherine Ray, Rio Grande Chapter Wildlife chair Whether deciding about wolves, bears or cougars, the New Mexico state Game Commission has increasingly revealed its disregard for our native carnivores. Earlier this year, the seven-member board appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez, voted to deny the privately owned Ladder Ranch the permit needed to hold Mexican gray wolves awaiting release into the wild at the facility built and previously used for this purpose. And then New Mexico Game and Fish, the ...
Read More