Rio Grande Chapter

On March 17, the New Mexico Senate Conservation Committee voted 6-2 to table HB 445, which sought to eliminate New Mexico’s requirement for 20 percent renewable energy by 2020. Tabling HB 445, sponsored by Rep. Larry Scott (R-Lea), means it is most likely dead for this session. The legislation passed the House by a vote of 33-32 last week. Had it passed the Senate, it almost surely would have been signed by the governor into law. HB 445 would have ...
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The team led by Nate McDowell of the Earth Systems Observations Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been studying climate change for many years. The effect of global warming and drought on tree physiology is often ignored or even unknown by not only climate deniers but committed environmentalists. Rolling Stone’s latest article on climate change shows how the effects of higher temperatures and drought kill trees, and how tree death exacerbates climate change, and McDowell is interviewed. READ THE FULL ARTICLE ...
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A huge sigh of relief was heard from residents from Quemado to Mountainair on the evening of Jan. 21 after Kinder Morgan announced the cancellation of its plans to build the massive Lobos CO2 pipeline through central New Mexico. Some 1,100 landowners in three counties, health organizations and environmental groups including Sierra Club had registered their concerns for over a year about the pipeline’s impact on land values, road safety, water supplies and community health to Bureau of Land Management, ...
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Also recommends regulators reject PNM’s rooftop solar tax proposal ALBUQUERQUE – The future of coal at the San Juan Generating Station grew cloudier today after a New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) hearing examiner recommended that the commissioners reject PNM’s proposal for a large rate hike along with plans to impose a monthly fee on residents who install rooftop solar. The Hearing Examiner recommended rejection of PNM’s rate hike application due to the application being incomplete and without proper support ...
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On Monday, April 6, the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission expressed support for a settlement between the Citizens Dairy Coalition (which includes the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter), the dairy industry, the New Mexico Attorney General and the New Mexico Environment Department that retains some of the protections of our state’s current, unenforced Dairy Rule. The commission will vote on the new rule at its May meeting in Santa Fe. The agreement is far less threatening to our drinking ...
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ALBUQUERQUE – PNM’s plan to double down on burning coal at the San Juan Generating Station faces a new hurdle after a New Mexico Public Regulation Commission hearing examiner recommended that the commission reject PNM’s request to increase its share of coal at the plant’s Unit 4. In his April 8 recommendation to the PRC commissioners, Ashley Schannauer, the independent hearing examiner overseeing PNM’s request to the Commission, found that PNM’s proposal to acquire an increased portion of the San ...
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UPDATE: Every one of these bills died in the House or Senate before the session ended. Thank you for your activism! This type of legislation will almost surely be back, so please check back during the 2016 session. Numerous counties and cities around New Mexico, prompted by citizens’ recognition that state oil and gas rules don’t provide adequate protection, have created local rules and ordinances aimed at protecting against negative impacts of oil and gas drilling. But Big Oil and ...
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For Immediate Release: February 16th, 2015 Contact: Camilla Feibelman, (505) 715-8388 or camilla.feibelman@sierraclub.org Albuquerque, NM ­ Responding to a wide swath cut through the Bosque’s most sensitive riverfront area, Albuquerque City Councilor Ike Benton filed emergency legislation to halt the construction, restart the public process and put the funds Mayor Richard Berry is using in the Bosque into the Open Space Department. The legislation, if the City Council allows it, will be heard on Wednesday. Members of the Bosque Action Team will ...
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Contact: Camilla Feibelman, camilla.feibelman@sierraclub.org or (505) ­715-­8388 Albuquerque, NM ­ Despite repeated attempts to meet with Open Space and City officials, Sierra Club leaders have received no formal response from the City. According to leaders, telephone calls and email requests remain unanswered. The City has continued bulldozing a mile and a half swath in the Bosque between Central and I­40, through some of the protected area’s most sensitive habitat, abruptly interrupting a public participation process that promised a consensus on a trial ...
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For Immediate Release: February 12, 2015
Photos and videos available
Contact: Camilla Feibelman, (505) 715-8388 Albuquerque, NM ­ On Monday the Bosque Action Team received maps of three different options for trails in the Bosque, part of a public process on how to restore and formalize trails in the Bosque. On Tuesday the City of Albuquerque had bladed a 6-­foot­-wide trail through the Bosque. Members of the Bosque Action Team, who had been working with the City in a productive public ...
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