Rio Grande Chapter

By Ken and Christine Newtson, Southern New Mexico Group On May 11, El Paso Electric (EPE), which serves Southern New Mexico and the El Paso area, filed with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission for an increase in electric rates of 7.1 percent of non-fuel-based rates. These proposed rates will result in a 9 percent increase, on average, to Southern New Mexico total residential bills. As EPE last filed for a non-fuel-based rate increase in New Mexico in 2009, an appropriate rate increase is reasonable. Of concern ...
Read More

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission in May rejected PNM’s rate-hike proposal, which would have required New Mexico families to cover tens of millions of dollars in costs for the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station and added a hefty monthly fee for anyone who installed rooftop solar. The decision follows a recommendation from a PRC hearing examiner that criticized PNM for failing to provide sufficient information to support its proposed rate increase. The Sierra Club intervened in the case to ...
Read More

By Jody Benson Last September, the Los Alamos community was astonished to see a bighorn ram wandering along Trinity Drive. He is one of 35 adults (plus 10 lambs) trapped from the large herd on Wheeler Peak, and helicoptered to a holding pen before being trucked to Cochiti tribal lands. From Cochiti Canyon, the herd dispersed north and south (including to Los Alamos), but reconvened in time for breeding season. As of April, there has been only one mortality, a ewe ...
Read More

By Jody Benson, Pajarito Group newsletter editor After 21 months of strategizing, communicating with the local government and Krogers Corporate, after research, meetings, letter-writing, public presentations, and op-editorializing — after addressing the SavetheBaggers’ issues by changing our request from a bag ban to a per-bag charge that would have given all of us, environmentalists and free-choice consumers alike, pretty much what we wanted (you want a bag, you can have it; just pay the merchant’s cost) — after all this, ...
Read More

By Robert Tohe, Our Wild America New Mexico coordinator Chaco Canyon’s ancient legacy and the oil and gas industry have been on a collision course since oil was first discovered in 1920s. The early role of the federal government, through the Department of Interior’s Indian Office, was to expedite private enterprise to lease and exploit oil resources within the Mancos Shale. Traditional headmen for the Navajo remained steadfast and refused to grant land for oil leases. Navajo people considered traditional ...
Read More

By Teresa Seamster, Northern New Mexico Group How can oil-drilling leases cause the loss of an individual’s safety, private property and ability to follow religious practices? The greater Chaco area in northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin is experiencing a ramping up of oil and gas development that has shaken residents with multiple impacts. A stretch of federal highway that runs through Counselor, Lybrook and Nageezi and a web of new dirt access roads to well pads near these small ...
Read More

By Norma McCallan, Chapter vice chair You may remember that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owns much of the tracks in New Mexico that the Southwest Chief travels daily between Los Angeles and Chicago, announced it would not renew its contract with Amtrak, due Dec. 31, to maintain the tracks since there is now little freight traffic along this section. This would seriously affect New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas, since the tracks and signaling devices are in serious need ...
Read More

By Chantel Chavez and Antonio Maestas, Southwest Organizing Project The residents of Bernalillo County are wrestling with questions about the well-being of New Mexico after the Bernalillo County Commission approved the Santolina development master plan on June 16. In this time of drought, residents are worried about how the lack of water will affect their everyday quality of life. Even before the proposed mega-development, the drought made many question the longevity of our agricultural livelihoods, as well as the health ...
Read More

Albuquerque is one of only two urban places in the country that protects its riparian zone as a natural place rather than a developed urban park. To help protect what makes our Bosque so special, we’re forming a Bosque Sentinels Program. If you are interested, you can select a part of the Bosque that you’d like to monitor. You’ll get to know the terrain and be able to report to Open Space if there are litter, fire or vandalism problems ...
Read More

By Allyson Siwik, Chapter Executive Committee, Gila Resources Information Project/Gila Conservation Coalition After weeks of negotiations, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission approved in June a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) to form the entity that will be responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the billion-dollar Gila River diversion project. As of press time, nine local governments have signed the agreement in advance of the July 3 deadline. Local governments are signing on to financing a $1 billion ...
Read More