Environmental Project

Interior oil and gas review met with mixed reactions

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While environmental activists praise various aspects of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s newly released report on federal oil and gas leasing and permitting processes, some say the report is incomplete and fails to account for the impact fossil fuel emissions have on climate change. The department released the report to comply with an executive order President Joe Biden issued titled “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” This executive order directed the Department of the Interior to review leasing and permitting processes. The report was released Friday and consists of 18 pages. 

The report includes recommendations such as raising royalty rates, charging more for rent and requiring higher levels of bonding. 

While the recommendations are supported by the environmental advocates, many of whom have been pushing for such reforms for years,  some say that the recommendations do not go far enough to address the climate crisis. “We’re sympathetic to the political gauntlet the Biden administration must run, but it had a choice to run it with power, speed, and agility. Instead, it’s running that gauntlet, weak, slow, and tentative,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, in a press release.

Environmental Project

Study: Emergency managers should plan for volcanic eruptions in the southwest

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The southwest United States has thousands of volcanoes that were only active for a very short period of time and, a new analysis published in the journal Geosphere urges emergency managers to be aware of the potential for further volcanic activity. The authors of the study counted 2,229 volcanoes in 37 volcanic fields located in the southwest United States and northern Mexico. While it is dotted with volcanic fields, the region has not received the same amount of attention for its volcanism as some other areas of the country such as the Pacific Northwest, which is home to volcanoes like Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier. Greg Valentine, a lead author on the paper and a geology professor at the University of Buffalo, said one reason that the volcanoes in the southwest have not received as much attention is that no eruptions have occurred since geology became an official science in the 1700s. Meanwhile, the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest has had modern explosions, such as Mount Saint Helens.

Environmental Project

A small seabird found far from home in New Mexico

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Mikal Deese has rehabbed more than a hundred species of birds at her non-profit rehabilitation center in Corrales, but last week she received a bird that she’d never seen before. The small black and white bird was found unable to fly on the side of a trail in Placitas and was brought to her On a Wing and A Prayer rehab center in a box. Upon opening the box, Deese knew the bird was far from where it belonged. 

She identified the bird as a murre–a seabird that rarely comes to shore. And, based on its size, she knew it was a murrelet, a small species of murre. The plumage and markings matched the ancient murrelet, a seabird that lives in the Pacific northwest and north into the arctic.

Environmental Project

Haaland visits Chaco Culture National Historical Park

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As the U.S. Department of the Interior begins the process of placing a 20-year moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands near Chaco Canyon, some nearby Indian allottees say that such an action would limit their ability to make a living off of their land. Meanwhile, proponents of the moratorium say it is needed to protect the sacred sites, lands and waters. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland drove by signs protesting the moratorium as she headed to Chaco Culture National Historical Park to celebrate President Joe Biden’s announcement of the moratorium impacting federal lands within a ten mile buffer of the park. While at the park, Haaland met with Indigenous and state leaders before addressing the crowd that had gathered for, what she described as, a celebration that was decades in the making. Haaland said Chaco Canyon is a living landscape.

News

Build Back Better Act passes U.S. House of Representatives

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Legislation that includes dozens of provisions to address climate change is one step closer to the president’s desk following a near-party-line vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday morning. The Build Back Better Act would provide funding to support working families, increase access to home ownership and address the climate crisis through increasing renewable energy and addressing emissions from the oil and gas sector. “I think it is not only the largest investment but the most comprehensive investment that we’ve ever seen in tackling climate change in our country’s history,” said U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat from New Mexico, in a press conference after the bill’s passage. Stansbury said the bill includes dozens of provisions targeted at addressing climate change “across every sector of our society and every community within the United States and our affiliated territories and communities all over the world.”

Stansbury said all the sectors that emit greenhouse gases contribute to climate change, including the transportation, energy and electricity sectors.  “And this bill really takes a comprehensive approach to addressing that across every sector,” she said.

Electric vehicles

State utility regulators look toward increased adoption of electric vehicles

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Utility regulators in New Mexico are preparing for increasing use of electric vehicles in the state and, while they have approved transportation electrification plans for the three investor-owned utilities in New Mexico, they say there is still more work to do. New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Joseph Maestas spoke about the need for a rulemaking process for electric transportation and said the PRC must plan for the $38 million that New Mexico will receive for charging infrastructure under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Maetas offered these comments during the PRC’s meeting last week following the approval of two transportation electrification plans. 

Southwestern Public Service Company, Public Service Company of New Mexico and El Paso Electric were required to submit transportation electrification plans to the PRC by the start of this year under the PRC Application for Public Safety law that passed the state Legislature in 2019. All three utilities filed these applications in 2020 and these plans have now been adopted. SPS’s plan received PRC approval in September and, on Nov.

Environmental Project

ISC looks at Abiquiu Reservoir to ease storage constraints while El Vado undergoes repairs

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Amid the need for reservoir repairs and the decreased water levels due to drought and climate change, the Interstate Stream Commission’s staff is looking at ways to store some of the water from El Vado Reservoir downstream in Abiquiu Reservoir. During an Interstate Stream Commission meeting on Thursday, Page Pegram, the Rio Grande Basin Bureau Chief for the Interstate Stream Commission, said El Vado Reservoir will largely be out of operation next year while the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation repairs the steel faceplate and the spillway. She said construction is scheduled to begin after the spring runoff ends. “Because of that, for the upcoming 2022 year, there will essentially be no storage in El Vado Reservoir,” she said. Pegram said about 2,400 acre-feet of water will remain in El Vado during the repairs of the faceplate.

Quick Reads

Three new state positions announced following passage of federal infrastructure package

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On Wednesday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced three new positions focused on the federal funding that is coming to the state through the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law this week. Leading this effort is former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, who will serve as New Mexico’s infrastructure chief strategist. Lujan Grisham said Chavez is an expert at getting stuff done and knows that, as important as projects like roads, water and bridges are, the infrastructure package is also about jobs and economic efforts. She said he also knows how hard it can be at the local level, particularly in smaller communities that don’t have the administrative resources to put the projects together. Mike Hamman, the chief engineer and CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and a member of the Interstate Stream Commission, will be tasked with overseeing the water management effort and Matt Schmit is the advisor to the new Office of Broadband Access and Expansion.

Environmental Project

PRC hearing examiner recommends approval of PNM’s Four Corners shares transfer to NTEC

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While environmental advocacy groups are concerned that transferring Public Service Company of New Mexico’s 13 percent ownership share in the Four Corners Power Plant to Navajo Transitional Energy Company will lead to continued or increased emissions, a hearing examiner for the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission recommended last week that the state regulators approve that transfer. The hearing examiner, Anthony Medeiros, recommended that the state regulators approve PNM’s application to transfer its shares in the coal-fired power plant to NTEC in 2024. About a year ago, PNM announced the plans to sell its 13 percent share to NTEC, a Navajo Nation enterprise, for $1 and to pay NTEC $75 million to assume its obligations under the coal supply agreement. The PNM shareholders are paying the $75 million. PNM claims that transferring its ownership shares to NTEC will save customers $30 million to $300 million.

Quick Reads

Air quality group discusses ozone levels

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Ozone levels in the Four Corners region—including New Mexico’s San Juan Basin—have been hovering just under the federal threshold of 70 parts per billion, according to data presented by Mark Sather, who works for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s region six in air monitoring and grants, during the Four Corners Air Quality Task Force meeting on Tuesday. Region six includes New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. The air quality task force is a multi-state, federal agencies and Tribal nations group that meets on an annual basis to share data and provide updates on initiatives to improve air quality. In the past, the meeting has alternated between Farmington and Durango, Colorado, but this year’s format was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ozone discussion comes just weeks after the EPA told a federal court that it will reassess a decision made in December 2020 to keep the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone at 70 parts per billion.