by NMELC | Mar 17, 2024 | NMELC in the News
March 17, 2024
By State Sen. Linda M. Lopez & David Vogel
We can all probably agree that good governance is an essential ingredient for a sustainable democracy. And good data is an essential ingredient for good governance.
A report recently released by the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER), an independent, nonpartisan research group and recognized expert in socioeconomic data for the state of New Mexico, revealed that the Santolina proposal for development on the far West Side of Albuquerque is based on highly unlikely and unrealistic data and projections….
by NMELC | Jan 1, 2024 | NMELC in the News
January/February 2024 By NMELC Staff Green Fire Times The New Mexico Environmental Law Center is honored once again to be invited by Green Fire Times to share our list of what we consider to be the Top 10 Environmental Justice Issues for the coming year. This annual...
by NMELC | Dec 15, 2023 | NMELC in the News
December 15, 2023
By Kent Paterson, CounterPunch
Promoting a tourism mystique, the marketers of Albuquerque, New Mexico, peddle images of clean skies, diverse culture and delicious cuisine. The icons encompass soaring hot air balloons, majestic Sandia Mountain vistas and the ubiquitous chile pepper, red or green. But if current political trends hold, the postcard visitors send grandma might depict more spewing emissions, sickly skies and gagging residents.
At least that’s the implication of recent actions by the Albuquerque City Council that sacked the current members of the joint Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board (JAQCB) and blocked a proposed Health, Environment and Equity Impacts rule (HEEI) aimed at protecting low-income communities of color in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County from further, disproportionate air pollution impacts, including the cumulative effects of pollution. …
by NMELC | Nov 6, 2023 | NMELC in the News
November 6, 2023
By V. B. Price, Mercury Messenger
A landmark environmental justice regulation proposed in Albuquerque — undoubtedly the most important of its kind in generations — has so frightened the business community here that it has gone to preposterous and disgusting lengths to undermine and destroy it.
Westside City Councilor and conservative Republican Dan Lewis, a petroleum businessman and pastor, introduced two bills in mid-October that would not only undermine the health of impoverished communities in Bernalillo County but would also deepen the county’s abysmal air quality record. The American Lung Association puts us in the top 25 most polluted metro areas in nation. …
by NMELC | Nov 4, 2023 | NMELC in the News
November 4, 2023
By Ryan Lowery, The Paper.
An Albuquerque city councilor is seeking to replace a seven-member board tasked with preventing and abating air pollution in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. It’s a plan that isn’t sitting well with many residents of the South Valley, part of the city that is home to a disproportionate number of potentially polluting businesses. …
by NMELC | Aug 17, 2023 | NMELC in the News
August 17, 2023
By Austin Fisher, Source NM
Massive, toxic fire comes as grassroots community groups push for historic air regulation
Richard Moore started getting phone calls from his neighbors in the South Valley on Aug. 6.
He followed the path of the smoke, and decided to go up to Mesa del Sol where the Atkore United Poly Systems fire was still burning.
Ten days after the plastic fire, there has still been no official report to residents on the health impacts of the smoke created by burning plastic.