January
With Sierra Club testifying in support, the New Mexico Construction Industries Commission votes to adopt the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code. It requires builders to design and construct new buildings with improved performance. The code includes requirements for new buildings to have infrastructure that supports charging for electric vehicles.
Albuquerque City’s Sustainability Office and FUSE Corp start a Citywide Composting Initiative with federal grant money. This year-long initiative includes stakeholder interviews and public listening sessions across the city. It concludes in October with a Draft Program Plan to establish six strategically located food waste drop-off sites.
The Public Regulation Commission adopts the hearing examiners’ finding that PNM acted imprudently in extending its participation in the Four Corners Power Plant beyond 2016. As a result, the commission disallows roughly $84 million from the amount PNM can recover from customer rates. This comes as part of the commission’s final order in PNM’s pending rate case.
February
Hundreds of grassroots lobbyists, students, and partner organizations attend Environment Day at the Roundhouse during the 30-day legislative session. Many meet with their legislators, speak at committee hearings and observe floor action from the galleries. The highlight is a loud and proud rally kicked off by a joyful parade of Sierra Club’s Global Warming Express students.
The National Nuclear Security Administration and Los Alamos National Laboratory host a public meeting to hear about the proposed transmission line across 14 miles of the irreplaceable Caja del Rio Plateau. The Caja del Rio Coalition and the Sierra Club submit over 23,000 public comments opposing the project.
With the passage of the Clean Fuels Act and the Clean Cars Tax Credit, combined with the Clean Cars and Trucks rules that passed in the Fall, more individuals, utilities, governments, and tribes will be able to invest in buying and building out the infrastructure to clean up transportation pollution.
March
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs the omnibus tax bill with seven climate-related tax credits. Three of these create incentives for everyday New Mexicans to buy electric vehicles, heat pumps, and rooftop solar. The governor vetoed some of these last year, but thanks to your support, she expanded and strengthened the credits.
A national coalition of partners, including Rio Grande Chapter staff, gathers in Washington, DC, to celebrate the Environmental Protection Agency’s finalized oil and gas methane rules and meets with congressional champions U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury and the administration.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the wild Mexican Wolf population has grown by 6% over the previous year with a minimum of 257 Lobos across southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. The genetic diversity of the population remains dangerously low.
April
The BLM releases its final “Public Lands Rule” that re-balances the agency’s multi-use mandate for managing public lands. For decades, the agency favored resource extraction over any other use. The Sierra Club submitted thousands of comments supporting the rule.
Interior Sec. Deb Haaland protects more than 4,200 acres of New Mexico landscapes known as the Buffalo Tract and the Crest of Montezuma from gravel mining and other extraction for the next 50 years.
BLM issues its final Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Rule, the first comprehensive update to the federal onshore oil and gas leasing program in decades. The rules will help mitigate the impacts of oil and gas development, but continued work is needed.
The Environmental Improvement Board votes to reject a challenge from auto dealers seeking a stay of the Advanced Clean Car II rules. The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board also votes to reject the challenge. These standards bring more electric vehicles to the state and directly benefit New Mexicans.
Over 4,500 visitors learn about cost savings through climate-friendly actions on Earth Day at Balloon Fiesta Park. Volunteer Energy Guides with the Sierra Club and 350 New Mexico’s Energy Experts help hundreds of festival-goers get information on how to find cost savings with utility, state and federal incentives.
The EPA announces that New Mexico is awarded $156,120,000 in funding through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s Solar For All program.
May
A coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, submits comments to the BLM on the draft plan for the Rio Grande Del Norte Monument. Though the plan is conservation-oriented, it proposes expanding right-of-ways for transmission lines across the Rio Grande Gorge.
Global Warming Express students in Raton, NM, start a recycling program in their school, accomplishing their Big Goal. Raton does not have curbside recycling, but through a series of meetings, the fourth graders at Raton Elementary get permission. The city will pick up recycle bins donated to the school by the Rotary Club.
The Water Quality Control Commission holds hearings to consider rules proposed by the NM Environment Department to prohibit the discharge of produced oil and gas wastewater to ground and surface waters. It has not been proven that introducing produced water – treated or untreated – is safe or protective of water resources. The Rio Grande Chapter and Amigos Bravos, represented by Western Environmental Law Center, intervened in the environmental department’s rulemaking and sponsored expert testimony.
June
Mayor Tim Keller signs Albuquerque City’s New Sustainability Resolution after it is passed unanimously by the Albuquerque City Council. The resolution outlines the city’s commitments to sustainability in economic development, energy, transportation, the built environment, and beyond. The Central Group supported the resolution and attended the signing event.
Twenty-five of the 29 candidates endorsed by the Chapter win their primary elections for the NM House and Senate and county commission and clerk races
A coalition of environmental groups, including the Rio Grande Chapter, petitions the NM’s Oil Conservation Commission to modernize outdated laws governing oil and gas cleanup, financial accountability, and more in the oil and gas industry.
July
The Interstate Stream Commission launches open houses in 16 regions throughout the state to hear from communities about the values to be reflected in state water management and planning. The Water Security Act passed in the 2023 legislative session changed how the state does regional water planning.
Global Warming Express students headline the Western Environmental Law Center’s Summer Soirée. Global W.E. students from Acequia Madre Elementary give their speeches and speak passionately about the need for people to reduce their meat consumption.
August
All four stacks of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station are demolished. The plant was a major source of pollution when operating at full capacity, emitting more than 12 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. “We are hopeful that after the demolition of San Juan Generating Station, the Four Corners area and its communities will no longer have to sacrifice our health and safety for fossil fuels,” says Rose Rushing, attorney at Western Environmental Law Center.
In partnership with Dreams in Action/The Semilla Project, the Sierra Club hosts “Climate Solution-Just Transition” Town Halls in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Taos, Santa Fe, Silver City, and Deming, all of which are packed.
September
Santa Fe National Forest releases a draft decision approving Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposal for a 14-mile transmission line across the Caja del Rio Plateau. The Forest Service’s draft decision ignores opposition from tribes in the region, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, and the tens of thousands of public comments.
State Land Office Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard announces her decision to transfer 212 acres of state land to Valle de Oro Urban National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Albuquerque. The office hosted three public meetings in the spring. The Central Group supported and engaged in this effort.
October
New Mexico’s Court of Appeals denies a request from a group of auto dealers to block the Advanced Clean Cars II rule in New Mexico. The court allows the rule to take effect and ensures more electric vehicles are delivered to New Mexico. Sierra Club helped defend the rule on appeal.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an effort by industry polluters to block the EPA’s Clean Air Act standards that cut methane and other harmful pollutants from the oil and gas industry.
The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to review a low court decision vacating Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licenses to operate high-level nuclear waste storage facilities in NM and TX.
November
The Oil Conservation Commission hears arguments on a petition filed by WildEarth Guardians to ban the use of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in oil and gas extraction. The Sierra Club spoke in support of the petition to ban PFAS.
We get a pro-environmental majority elected to the New Mexico state legislature with the help of our members and volunteers.
A district judge orders a private landowner, who blocked Kingston residents from using road access to the Aldo Leopold wilderness, to stop obstructing public access or face public nuisance claims. Kingston residents have been fighting for public access since December 2023. Southern Group volunteer leader David Baake is one of the lead lawyers who made this happen.
New Mexico’s Court of Appeals rejects a challenge to the methane emission standards adopted by the Environmental Improvement Board. Western Environmental Law Center and Sierra Club were key supporters of the rule and helped defend the appeal.
December
Asha the wolf remains in captivity throughout the year. She has accepted a mate and they are penned together, but she is still not pregnant and the US Fish and Wildlife Service has not released them as hoped.