Thank you to everyone who showed up in support of State Land Office (SLO) proposed amendments to strengthen financial assurance requirements for oil and gas operators yesterday and this morning. As we noted in our opening statement: New Mexico is facing an orphan well crisis of staggering proportions, and it did not happen by accident. It is the predictable result of an oil and gas business model that allows major operators to extract enormous profits during the productive li

Ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on the State Land Office proposal to strengthen bonding requirements for oil and gas operators on state lands, New Energy Economy today released a major new report warning that New Mexico taxpayers will face billions of dollars in oil and gas cleanup liabilities unless state regulators act now to strengthen bonding and financial assurance requirements for oil and gas operators. This proposed rule is critical because abandoned oil and gas wells can

Today we have the chance to take proactive action for good regulation! We can hold the oil and gas industry in New Mexico accountable for properly plugging and remediating thousands of oil and gas wells drilled on state land across New Mexico. In April the State Land Office proposed a new rule to strengthen bonding requirements for oil and gas development on state lands. Two public comment hearings will be held next week on May 27th and 28th at 9:00AM at the State Land Office

Yesterday we witnessed violence. It was dressed up in nice clothes and a veneer of democracy, but it was violence nonetheless. Water Quality Control Commissioner's gave lip service to the truth. They agreed that the oil and gas industry fracking waste discharge rule proposed before them was incomplete, that there are no standards to protect human health and the environment for the twenty pages of chemicals listed in the petition (not to mention about 1000 more that are simply

Today in Columbia representatives from more than 50 nations, dozens of subnational governments and 2800 representatives from civil societies, a "coalition of the willing," continue their five day global conference to reinvigorate international efforts to reduce climate warming emissions outside of the Paris Accords COP process, which has largely been hijacked by fossil fuel interests and petrostates like the United States and Saudi Arabia. The group has formed a panel of scie

Yesterday you showed up to defend our water. New Mexican's from across the state made an impassioned plea to the Commission: water is kin, water is sacred, we cannot risk contaminating the water that gives us life. Farmers, acequieros, tribal members, business owners, teachers, parents, medical professionals, scientists and former oil and gas workers from across the state - from Taos to Espanola to Albuquerque to Doña Ana County - each gave their time and spoke passionately i

On April 7th, 2026 New Energy Economy and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a Joint Motion to Show Cause arguing that the WATR Alliance, in its petition seeking authorization to reuse and discharge produced water, had fabricated multiple quotations supporting their petition by alleging that the quotations were extracts from peer reviewed scientific papers. The quotations misrepresented the state of the science and the conclusions reached by the authors of these studie

This week we learned about a company looking to restart exploration for uranium mining near Canjilon, a project that could poison the entire Chama watershed, we scrambled to participate in the ludicrous seven day public comment period on the Trump administration's bid to re-open fossil fuel extraction near Chaco Canyon, and saw there was a notice that federal agencies are reversing efforts to ban mining in the Upper Pecos, potentially opening up nearly 165,000 acres for miner

The Hearing Examiners have agreed with intervenors that Blackstone's acquisition of $400 million PNM shares without PRC permission warrants its own hearing, which has been set to begin on April 30th. Most importantly, the Hearing Examiners have vacated the prior hearing schedule because they agreed with intervenors that the acquisition cannot move forward until an investigative hearing concludes and a determination is made as to whether Blackstone and PNM violated the law wit

In Tehran today people are breathing a toxic soup of oil and dangerous particulates. The sky is black, death rains down and there is no water. In the words of Mehnaz, quoted in The Guardian: “The Rey depot, you won’t believe, was still on fire and it’s insane because in the night it looked like day and in the day, it was so dark, it looked like a new moon night. So, so dark, just like our futures.” Aramco is warning of “catastrophic consequences” for the world’s economy if t

We started the legislative session with a reminder that WE GOT US. It is WE, THE PEOPLE that will create the change we want to see. Nowhere was that more apparent than the juxtaposition between the hundreds of people showing up for six hours to speak against Blackstone at the PRC on Tuesday with the utter failure of the leadership in the New Mexico House and Senate to protect the people against the predicted and already extremely apparent collapse of our ecosystem as a conseq

An application filed by Wild Earth Guardians and supported by New Energy Economy in 2023 sought to prohibit the use of PFAS compounds in all downhole oil and gas operations and require community notification of chemical disclosures. The final rule adopted by the OCC, however, improperly worded the prohibition on PFAS to apply only to well completion and recompletions, leaving out operations like oil and gas well drilling, treatment and maintenance, and enhanced oil recover

With everything going on, we have been remiss in reporting on an ongoing dispute with the Oil Conservation Commission over the final wording of the PFAS prohibition in Oil and Gas operations that was litigated in November of 2024. The application filed by Wild Earth Guardians and supported by New Energy Economy in 2023 sought to prohibit the use of PFAS compounds in all downhole oil and gas operations and require community notification of chemical disclosures. The final rule

The outcome was not at all certain as water advocates and public health protectors filed into the WQCC meeting yesterday, where Commissioners would decide the outcome of three formal motions to disqualify Commissioners and vacate a prior decision to allow a hearing on a WATR Alliance fracking waste discharge petition. Despite an extraordinary scene in which the people defied the Chair's surprise announcement that public comment on the fracking waste issue would not be heard ,

We are thrilled to report that the NM Supreme Court has agreed to hear the landmark lawsuit filed in 2023 by a coalition of Indigenous, frontline, youth and environmental organizations and community members over the state’s failure to protect public health and the environment from the harms of oil and gas pollution, as required by the state constitution. The lawsuit, Atencio v. State of New Mexico, is the first to challenge the state for violating the pollution control c

On October 20th the Oil Conservation Commission will begin a hearing on new regulations in Case No. 24683 brought by Western Environmental Law Center and allies to try to prevent the abandonment of oil and gas wells in New Mexico. New Energy Economy has intervened to support the applicants and advocate for even stronger regulations necessary to address the impending orphan well crisis that could cost New Mexico billions. The Impending Orphan Well Crisis Could End up Costing

Photo by Anni Hanna New Energy Economy and Navajo Elder Daniel Tso today jointly filed a sweeping motion with the Water Quality Control...

New Mexico now has its own WATRgate. Newly disclosed emails reveal what advocates have long suspected: the Governor’s Office is actively...

Last week New Energy Economy filed a motion requesting that the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) require the “Water Access...

Photo by Anni Hanna Yesterday the people showed up with power and truth to demand the Water Quality Control Commission put people over...