by Scott Wyland

Santa Fe New Mexican

May 6, 2022

New Mexicans will see thousands more electric vehicles available to buy in 2025 when a rule approved by two environmental boards takes effect. 

Dubbed the clean-car rule, it will require that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids make up at least 7 percent of automakers’ new sales within New Mexico — adding up to an estimated 3,800 vehicles. …

New Mexico Clean Cars, Clean Air Coalition Celebrates the Step Away from Fossil Fuels

by Gwynne Ann Unruh

The Paper.

May 6, 2022

 It’s a win for the Land of Enchantment’s air, thanks to a coalition of over 35 organizations across the state who supported clean car rules. Over the past year, the New Mexico Clean Cars Clean Air Coalition, with the help of New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) hustled to make their voices heard. They got a thumbs up just after public hearings on May 4 and 5, as the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board and the City of Albuquerque – Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board voted to adopt The Clean Car Rule. …

By Darren Thompson

Native News Online
April 25, 2022

Last Friday, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) traveled to Church Rock on the Navajo Nation, by invitation from the Navajo Nation and Redwater Pond Road Community members to discuss the impacts of uranium mining. NRC officials heard, for the first time in history, of the health and environmental impacts caused by uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. …

Santa Fe asphalt consolidation appeal results expected this summer

By Megan Gleason

UNM Daily Lobo
April 25, 2022

Areas with people of color, low-income residents and immigrants have historically been forced to endure environmental racism around the U.S., but New Mexico locals are fighting against it. Santa Fe’s Southside and Albuquerque’s South Valley continue in their efforts against unjust environmental decisions that disproportionately affect marginalized groups….

Three years of resistance to asphalt plant consolidation continues

By Austin Fisher
Source NM
April 21, 2022

A final decision on whether an asphalt company can expand its operations on Santa Fe’s South Side is expected this summer, after community groups appealed the project’s approval by state environmental regulators and hundreds of local residents petitioned Monday for the decision to be overturned….

By Theresa Davis
Albuquerque Journal
April 20, 2022

About two dozen South Valley farmers protested at Civic Plaza on Wednesday in response to comments about agricultural water use made by Bernalillo County Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada who referred to farmers as being among the “biggest wasters of water.”

The commissioner walked back his comments during Wednesday’s Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority board meeting….

By Gwynne Ann Unruh
The Paper.

March 3, 2022

Community groups scored a big win today. For the past eight years, it’s been a back-and-forth battle with Santolina and community groups that oppose a development the size of Santa Fe on Albuquerque’s west mesa. In a highly unusual move, despite the County Staff’s urging to approve the Santolina amendments, the Bernalillo County Planning Commission (CPC) members voted 3-2 to deny amended Level A Master Plan and 3-1 to deny the Level B.II Master Plan for the proposed Santolina development project….

By Shaun Griswold
Source NM

March 3, 2022

Developer talks trucking in water during construction, while South Valley farmers raise larger drought concerns

Developers of the Santolina subdivision failed to find support for their new plans at the Bernalillo County Planning Commission meeting Wednesday.

By Jessica Dyer
Albuquerque Journal

March 2, 2022

A proposal that would have paved the way for industrial uses inside Santolina hit rough waters Wednesday as the Bernalillo County Planning Commission opposed amendments to the site’s previously approved master plan….

By Adrian Hedden
Carlsbad Current-Argus

February 8, 2022

New Mexicans’ right to a clean environment could be codified into state law as a resolution advanced from its first committee last week during the 2022 Legislative Session.

House Joint Resolution 2 sponsored by Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-37) of Las Cruces was known as the “green amendment,” and would put language on the ballot in the next general election to alter the state’s constitution to define environmental rights….

By The Paper. Staff
The Paper.

February 06, 2022

Constitutional Amendment will Secure the Right to Clean Air and Water and a Healthy Environment

On Saturday, the New Mexico House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted to pass an updated version of HJR2, or the Green Amendment, through committee with a vote of 6 to 4. A revised version was considered by the committee after the original language failed to achieve the majority necessary at last week’s hearing to advance. The new language, according to sponsors, addresses concerns raised at last week’s hearing while still providing essential environmental rights and natural resources protection. The proposed New Mexico Green Amendment will be moving forward to the House Judiciary Committee next…

By Bella Davis
Santa Fe Reporter
February 02, 2022

Southsiders Linda Marianiello and Miguel Acosta have for about two years been trying to prevent Associated Asphalt and Materials from consolidating operations in Santa Fe under a new permit, citing community health concerns, particularly given the company’s history of possible violations….

By Mia Montoya Hammersley, Staff Attorney, New Mexico Environmental Law Center
Albuquerque Journal
Guest Column
January 27, 2022

Every summer when I was growing up, I looked forward to the time I would spend with my family in Tularosa. A quiet oasis, these weeks were spent picking fruit from the trees in my grandparents’ yard and racing empty banana split boats through the irrigation ditches with my cousins. My grandfather, Demetrio “Dee” Herrera Montoya, served as mayor of Tularosa for many years. He passed away in 2010 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He and my grandmother were children when the world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated on July 16, 1945, approximately 45 miles from their homes in the Tularosa Basin….

By Scott Wyland Santa Fe New Mexican January 15, 2022 The proposed Green Amendment that would make a clean and healthy environment a constitutional right for New Mexicans will be taken up in the legislative session with strong Democratic backing and virtually zero Republican support. The partisan divide is no surprise to anyone familiar with […]

By NMELC Staff
Green Fire Times
Jan/Feb 2022

For the last four years in Green Fire Times, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center has shared our perspective on the top environmental issues to watch in the coming year. Three of those years focused on the gutting of environmental safeguards by the Trump administration; last year we reflected glimmers of hope, both on the national and the state levels, regarding environmental protection. A year later, we again take stock of efforts to hold both regulating agencies as well as industry and polluters accountable for contamination of air, lands and water. Here are our top-10 environmental justice issues for 2022….