As pollution from oil and natural gas aggravate respiratory conditions and worsen symptoms of COVID-19, New Mexico lawmakers are currently in the rulemaking process for methane/ozone regulations.

New Mexico political leaders hosted a webinar on Aug. 26 to discuss climate and public health issues within the state.

Topics addressed by the panel included the effects of global warming and air pollution across the state.

Pollution from oil and natural gas, according to data from the state, can “aggravate respiratory conditions and worsen symptoms of COVID-19.”

“Passage of the Energy Transition Act has put our state on a path to ensure that by 2045, the electricity grid will be 100...

Week ending Friday, August 28, 2020


No COVID Respite

The sharp decline in greenhouse gases spewed into the atmosphere during the global pandemic this year will have virtually no impact on the future of global heating, scientists predict. Even with far fewer vehicles on the world’s roadways and industrial production sharply curbed, a new analysis says global temperatures will be only 0.01 degree Celsius lower by 2030 than earlier predictions. Writing in the journal Nature  Climate Change, Piers Forster, from the University of Leeds, and colleagues say that only strong green energy stimulus efforts can keep the world from exceeding the 1.5-degree Celsius warming target by...

Nearly 50 percent of revenue will go to the states

SANTA FE—The Bureau of Land Management New Mexico raised $8,284,586. in its oil and gas lease sale held Aug. 26-27. Nearly 50 percent of the revenue from the sale will go to the states where the oil and gas activity occurs—in this case New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas—while the rest will go to the U.S. Treasury. The states use the revenue from lease sales to fund services including schools, hospitals, law enforcement and infrastructure projects.

For this sale, the BLM offered leases on 113 parcels totaling 48,776.1. The highest bid per acre was $21,512 which sold to Federal Abstract Company for 120 acres in Eddy County, N.M...

Suit seeks to protect mouse, meadows in New Mexico Sacramento Mountains

ALBUQUERQUE— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Forest Service Aug. 27 to challenge its failure to protect streamside meadows in New Mexico’s Sa­cra­mento Mountains from cattle. The areas are critical habitat for the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.

The lawsuit shows that the Forest Service has spent more than $8.4 million in public funds over the past four years to facilitate the grazing operations of two permit holders who have amassed more than 250 violations of their cattle exclosure obligations during the same period. The Forest Service has documented that the permit holders...