NM Environment Review: March lease sale near Chaco postponed, plus gas hikes, San Juan settlement and subalpine trees

In an exclusive story published Thursday evening, Michael Coleman reported that U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke postponed an oil and gas lease sale in northwestern New Mexico. According to the story: Zinke told the Journal in an exclusive interview Thursday afternoon that “there have been some questions raised” so the Bureau of […]

NM Environment Review: March lease sale near Chaco postponed, plus gas hikes, San Juan settlement and subalpine trees

In an exclusive story published Thursday evening, Michael Coleman reported that U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke postponed an oil and gas lease sale in northwestern New Mexico. According to the story:

Zinke told the Journal in an exclusive interview Thursday afternoon that “there have been some questions raised” so the Bureau of Land Management will hold off on the sale of about 25 parcels on 4,434 acres within Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and San Juan Counties in northwestern New Mexico.

Mark Oswald reported in the Albuquerque Journal on Tuesday that more than 20 acequia and community ditch groups want to overturn a 2013 court decision that approved  an agreement between the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico settled a decades-old water rights claim on the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River that flows through northwestern New Mexico.

Their filing, by Albuquerque attorney Victor Marshall, seeks to toss out the judge’s ruling because he lived and worked on the Navajo Nation in the 1970s.

It’s a shocking enough motion that former newspaperman, and current UNM Water Resources Department Director, John Fleck weighed in the issue on his blog this week. Fleck notes that non-Indian water users in New Mexico have continued to wage a battle against the Navajo Nation’s New Mexico residents:

I spent months examining Marshall’s claims in detail. His legal claims are dubious, having failed repeatedly in court. His hydrologic claims are laughable, aimed at repeatedly exaggerating the size of the Navajo peoples’ share of the water in order to make it seem an unreasonably large share of the state’s water. See here for my attempt at a simple explanation. 

But this is about more than law and hydrology. There is an implicitly racist element to this litigation – the implication that in allocating water to residents of the Navajo Nation it is being taken from New Mexicans. These people are New Mexicans. This is simply a legal recognition of water that is rightfully theirs.

Read his whole piece here.

Kevin Robinson-Avila reported on the rate hike the New Mexico Gas Company is seeking from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission for the Albuquerque Journal. If approved, he wrote, it would generate $8 million more in annual revenue and help the company pay for investments in its natural gas transmission and distribution system. That will interest customers, but one paragraph in particular grabbed my interest:

The complete rate request, which the company filed Monday morning at the PRC, proposes a variety of changes to the utility’s rate design to smooth out the volatility in company revenue caused by erratic weather patterns and a warming climate, said Tom Domme, vice president of regulatory affairs.

Wednesday, NPR aired a story about how oil production in the United States will soon top that of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Their story focuses on West Texas, and it’s worth a listen if you missed it.

And you can file this one under “More Cruddy News About the West’s Forests,” but a recent study from scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder shows that drier summers and a drop in average snowpack over the past four decades is affecting the ability of spruce and fir trees to establish themselves in Colorado’s mountains.

Scientists looked at more than 450 Engelmann spruce and 500 subalpine fir to see when they germinated—and found that most date to years when there was above-average snowpack and wet summer conditions. Read the study in the peer-reviewed journal, Ecology, here or see the CU Boulder Today release here.

We're ad free

That means that we rely on support from readers like you. Help us keep reporting on the most important New Mexico Stories by donating today.

Related

Emily’s List endorses seven candidates for Legislature

Emily’s List endorses seven candidates for Legislature

Emily’s List, a nonprofit that supports women candidates and reproductive rights, endorsed seven incumbents facing general election opponents in New Mexico legislative elections. All…
Equality New Mexico endorses 15 legislative candidates

Equality New Mexico endorses 15 legislative candidates

A New Mexico-based LGBTQ rights organization endorsed 15 candidates for state House and Senate seats for the 2024 elections.  Marshall Martinez, executive director of…
Lujan Grisham pocket vetoes two bills

Lujan Grisham pocket vetoes two bills

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pocket vetoed two bills the legislature passed this legislative session: one changing the Cybersecurity Act and the other concerning law…
BLM announces final methane waste rule

BLM announces final methane waste rule

The federal Bureau of Land Management announced its final methane waste rule on Wednesday. These new regulations clamp down on the practice of venting…
What consumers, farmers should know about the flu impacting dairy cows

What consumers, farmers should know about the flu impacting dairy cows

Migrating birds appear to have caused a virus in dairy cattle that is causing reduced milk production. So far, the disease, which initially started…
Republicans seek to limit national monument designations

Republicans seek to limit national monument designations

Republican-backed legislation in the U.S. Congress would make it harder for the government to designate new national monuments. The proposed Congressional Oversight of the…
Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican The main things that bring Brayan Chavez to school every day: Seeing, talking to and engaging with…
Special ed teachers hope lawmakers OK pay raises, admin changes

Special ed teachers hope lawmakers OK pay raises, admin changes

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican Brittany Behenna Griffith has a laundry list of adjectives to describe the ideal special education teacher:…
Lawmakers must find consensus on competing education spending plans

Lawmakers must find consensus on competing education spending plans

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican A challenging task awaits New Mexico lawmakers in the next 30 days: Reconciling three very different…
Health workers fear it’s profits before protection as CDC revisits airborne transmission

Health workers fear it’s profits before protection as CDC revisits airborne transmission

Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News Four years after hospitals in New York City overflowed with covid-19 patients, emergency physician Sonya Stokes remains shaken by…
Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos

Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Friday $10 million in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act was awarded to six tribal nations and…
Proposal to curb executive powers moves to House Judiciary

Proposal to curb executive powers moves to House Judiciary

The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee discussed a potential constitutional amendment that seeks to limit the governor’s executive powers. The committee approved…
U.S. Supreme Court hears case to restrict access to medication abortion

U.S. Supreme Court hears case to restrict access to medication abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case about the regulations around mifepristone, one of a two-step regime for abortion medication, on Tuesday. FDA v.…
At stake in mifepristone case: Abortion, FDA’s authority, and return to 1873 obscenity law

At stake in mifepristone case: Abortion, FDA’s authority, and return to 1873 obscenity law

Lawyers from the conservative Christian group that won the case to overturn Roe v. Wade are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in pursuit…
Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case against the abortion medication mifepristone. It will hear a second…
New Mexico Medicaid to cover cost of over-the-counter oral contraception

New Mexico Medicaid to cover cost of over-the-counter oral contraception

New Mexico Medicaid announced on Wednesday that it will cover the cost of Opill, the first oral contraception approved for over-the-counter use. It is…
U.S. Supreme Court hears case to restrict access to medication abortion

U.S. Supreme Court hears case to restrict access to medication abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case about the regulations around mifepristone, one of a two-step regime for abortion medication, on Tuesday. FDA v.…
At stake in mifepristone case: Abortion, FDA’s authority, and return to 1873 obscenity law

At stake in mifepristone case: Abortion, FDA’s authority, and return to 1873 obscenity law

Lawyers from the conservative Christian group that won the case to overturn Roe v. Wade are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in pursuit…
San Juan County, Navajo Nation settle redistricting case

San Juan County, Navajo Nation settle redistricting case

The Navajo Nation and San Juan County reached an agreement Monday about commission districts after the tribe alleged that its members were not adequately…
MIT ranks NM elections most well-run in the U.S.

MIT ranks NM elections most well-run in the U.S.

New Mexico’s 2022 election was ranked most well-run in the country by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data and Science Lab’s Elections Performance Index.…
Emily’s List endorses seven candidates for Legislature

Emily’s List endorses seven candidates for Legislature

Emily’s List, a nonprofit that supports women candidates and reproductive rights, endorsed seven incumbents facing general election opponents in New Mexico legislative elections. All…
BLM announces final methane waste rule

BLM announces final methane waste rule

The federal Bureau of Land Management announced its final methane waste rule on Wednesday. These new regulations clamp down on the practice of venting…
U.S. Supreme Court hears case to restrict access to medication abortion

U.S. Supreme Court hears case to restrict access to medication abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case about the regulations around mifepristone, one of a two-step regime for abortion medication, on Tuesday. FDA v.…
What consumers, farmers should know about the flu impacting dairy cows

What consumers, farmers should know about the flu impacting dairy cows

Migrating birds appear to have caused a virus in dairy cattle that is causing reduced milk production. So far, the disease, which initially started…

GET INVOLVED

© 2023 New Mexico Political Report