Rio Grande Chapter

Please join us for the March Sierra Club and Root Beer this Friday at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center. Dr. Sandrine Gaillard will give a workshop entitled “Why You Should Go Solar Now.” Dr. Gaillard is a physicist who in 2015 helped start the Sierra Club’s program to Solarize Santa Fe. She developed a website designed to help homeowners decide if solar is right for them and how to move forward. The information on the website is the basis for her presentation ...

Victory! Terrific victories for all you citizen lobbyists who have been contacting your senators and representatives!

• HM70, asking the BLM to pausing drilling in the greater Chaco Canyon area, unanimously passed the House State Government, Indian Affairs and Veterans Committee on Tuesday (see photo at top of page).
• The Senate Conservation Committee on Tuesday passed SB312, requiring investor-owned utilities top provide 50% of their electricity from renewable energy by 2030 and 80% by 2040. This climate-protecting legislation passed 6-3.
...

Read More

Lots of key bills, both positive and dangerous, will be heard tomorrow at the New Mexico Legislature. This is a great day to take action by calling or writing legislators, and tomorrow is a great day to be at the Roundhouse if you can.  Click here for contact info for key Senate and House committees. Feeling shy about calling? It’s easy: When you call a legislator’s office, just tell the person who answers the phone that you urge Sen. or Rep ...

There’s lots of conflicting information floating around about SB210 and HB199, PNM has been lobbying your legislators for more than a year for a bill that imposes a long list of requirements on solar installers. While PNM is peddling Senate Bill 210 and House Bill 199 as “consumer protection” bills, but they are really part of an effort to stifle competition from residential solar, which homeowners are increasingly choosing as an alternative to PNM’s expensive mix of mostly coal, nuclear and ...

Despite hundreds of violations, New Mexico oil and gas companies have not paid a cent in penalties since 2010. From 2007 through 2009, New Mexico collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties per year from the oil and gas industry. In 2009, however, an oil and gas company won a court case that effectively stopped New Mexico from collecting penalties for rule violations. Senate Bill 307 would restore the authority of Oil Conservation Division to fine oil and gas operators ...

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site and International Dark Sky Park in northwestern New Mexico. The Greater Chaco landscape also encompasses an intricate network of ancient roads extending hundreds of miles across federal, state, tribal trust, private, and Navajo allotment lands. The Greater Chaco region houses the densest and most exceptional concentration of ancient pueblos in the American Southwest. More than 200 known Chacoan “great houses” are spread across New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah ...

Phone numbers for key House and Senate committees hearing pro- and anti-environment bills soon: OPPOSE: Public-lands seizure, SB182, “Early Childhood Land Grant Act.” Hearing 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Room 311 at the Roundhouse Senate Education Committee
Senator William P. Soules, D, Chair 986-4834
Senator Mimi Stewart, D Vice Chair 986-4267
Senator Candace Gould, R 986-4266
Senator Bill B. O’Neill, D 986-4260
Senator Michael Padilla, D, 986-4726
Senator John Pinto, D 986-4835
Senator James P. White, R 986-4395
Senator Craig W ...

The 2017 New Mexico legislative session is in full swing. Below is a primer on some priority environmental legislation. Please click here if you’d like legislative updates and action alerts during the session. Sen. Peter Wirth’s SB215, which makes it much easier for homeowners to finance rooftop solar, energy storage or water-conservation projects (and allows the financing to stay with the house after it’s sold), will be heard in Senate Conservation Committee Feb. 9. Update: This bill passed the Senate Conservation Committee ...

The February 2017 First Friday Art features the art of Victoria Mlady ...

The Sierra Club has a new site where the public can get updated and take action to resist the anti-environmental and anti-justice policies and appointments of the Trump administration ...