Rio Grande Chapter

By John Buchser, 
Rio Grande Chapter Water Chair The Rio Grande Chapter is helping to protect the aquifers of New Mexico by monitoring quarterly reports from 13 dairies we suspect are polluting our groundwater. Dairies produce large amounts of waste in the process of keeping their milking facilities clean. This waste includes large quantities of manure, which is ultimately applied to fields as fertilizer for crops. The storage of this waste can be a safe process if the waste ...

By Susan  Martin, 
Chapter Executive Committee In August, New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn announced he was stepping down. In September, he was named New Mexico Oil and Gas Association executive director. A recent Santa Fe New Mexican article about the Martinez administration’s favors to Helena Chemical Co. exposes just how submissive Gov. Susana Martinez and Flynn have been to polluting industries and campaign contributors. But advocates who have defended clean-water safeguards against Flynn’s dismantling efforts already knew that. Almost any new ...

By Mona Blaber,
Chapter Communications Director At the end of September, the Albuquerque City Council unanimously set a goal to get 25 percent of electricity at the city’s facilities from solar energy by 2025. Achieving this goal will help make Albuquerque a leader in solar energy, decrease air and water pollution and save the city money. The effort was led by our coalition partner Environment New Mexico and generated thousands of calls and emails to city councilors supporting solar ...

By Mona  Blaber, 
Rio Grande Chapter communications director On September 28, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission voted on the contentious PNM rate case, with good news and bad news for ratepayers and the climate. PNM, the electric utility serving most of New Mexico, had asked for a 15 percent residential rate increase. A PRC hearing examiner in August recommended a 6.6 percent increase instead. The hearing officer had excoriated PNM for failing to justify several multimillion-dollar transactions it wanted ...

By Susan Martin
Chapter political chair The most powerful way to protect our water, wildlife, land and climate is through good environmental policy, and the most powerful way to ensure good policy is by electing pro-environ- ment candidates. The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter sends questionnaires to and interviews eligible candidates, and two chapter committees must approve every endorsement by a two-thirds vote in order for a candidate to be endorsed. (Incumbents can be judged by their public record rather ...

Grant County Commission: Alicia Edwards, Marilyn Alcorn, Harry Browne In Grant County, voters have a great opportunity to elect a county commission that could swing the commission to a pro-environment — and pro-Gila River — majority. Alicia Edwards, Marilyn Alcorn and Harry Browne are all committed conservationists who have pledged to preserve Southwestern New Mexico’s unique treasures and resources. Edwards is running in District 3; Alcorn is vying for the District 4 seat; and Browne is running in District 5 ...

Secretary of State: Maggie Toulouse Oliver We enthusiastically endorse Maggie Toulouse Oliver in the key race for Secretary of State. The Sierra Club is a coalition partner in the Democracy Initiative, which states: “Our democracy is built on the idea that every citizen can participate in the electoral process and each ballot counts equally. However, barriers exist that prevent some Americans from voting, rendering our voices unequal.” We want to arrive at a democracy in which the voice of the ...

For US Congress, the Rio Grande Sierra Club endorses two incumbents who have stood up for the environment and one challenger. In District 1, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham has amassed a solid environmental voting record, and she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would allow corporations to challenge environmental laws and regulations as expropriations of their profits before unaccountable arbitration panels consisting of corporate trade lawyers. In District 3 (northern and eastern NM), Rep. Ben Ray Luján has been a climate champion ...

Below are the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter’s comments on the New Mexico Environment Department’s proposed changes to groundwater regulations. The Environment Department says the changes will improve the state’s compliance with federal water requirements. But the changes would also allow facilities to permanently skirt water-quality rules and would weaken standards on some contaminants. The biggest issue: The department is proposing that variances, which temporarily excuse facilities from complying with groundwater rules, become permanent. Variances are supposed to be temporary exceptions ...

District 4: GloJean TodacheeneTodacheene was the first Native woman to serve as San Juan County commissioner. She is running for this Northwest New Mexico seat because “environmental issues, out-of-state migration and a loss of funding from the oil and gas industry are big issues in the state. We need to use science to solve problems.” District 10: Andrés RomeroRomero made environmental policy a central issue in his 2014 campaign. Now as a first-term legislator, he has remained committed to ensuring ...