New Mexico’s Governor Declares Drought Emergency. Sort Of.
A warming climate — fueled in part by the state’s oil and gas production — has parched rivers and turned forests to tinder.
Jerry Redfern
June 11, 2025
A warming climate — fueled in part by the state’s oil and gas production — has parched rivers and turned forests to tinder.
A waste incinerator, a paper plant and a sewage treatment facility all jammed in a town of 35,000. “Our children literally cannot breathe.”
Proposed rules would force operators to measure methane emissions, fix leaks and, in some cases, install gas collection systems.
Pipeline company touts helping the nation; letter writing campaign raises questions. Critic says, “Just pipe the natural gas.”
After climate-driven L.A. fires, “rancid” politics and fear of job loss, gas prices, slows momentum to confront industry.
While Solar for All funds languish, the state continues to lag behind most of the nation when it comes to renewable energy.
State inspectors find site abandoned, raising concerns about pollution from unplugged wells across Appalachia.
In Pennsylvania, a hydrogen hub in upheaval as natural gas producer pauses involvement while four others bail on the project.
Like labels on cigarettes, opponents say fossil fuel warnings could change attitudes. Others call it gasoline “shaming.”
Sixty days and 1,182 bills later, state legislators take a pass on oil and gas reforms.
Fracking operation is among more than 600 controversial projects the president wants to expedite to combat the nation’s ‘energy emergency’
How one Pennsylvania community pushed the fracking industry away from their homes and schools, even as statewide efforts have stalled.
Operators lost enough natural gas to power 12,000 homes for a year, even as legislators debated and abandoned most new reforms.
High-tech camera reveals the pollutants spewing into the atmosphere, providing evidence for the state to investigate gas and oil operators.
With little time, nearly 1,200 bills and disappearing federal partners, legislators slow-roll new oil and gas regulations.
Legislators juggle hundreds of bills. Some would shape the industry that generates money, pollution and climate disasters.
Powerful senator threatens Environment Department with funding cuts, its secretary with investigation.
Grants promised for renewable energy, clean air and municipal water systems frozen and under review.
The state’s challenge: How to police an industry that generates a third of the state budget and a third of its greenhouse emissions.
Emboldened residents organize to halt Big Oil’s march toward the Rocky Mountain suburbs.
Companies are using a shortcut to build ever larger centers that use diesel generators as an emergency power source.
Incoming Attorney General Dave Sunday didn’t mention climate change on the campaign trail, but fossil fuel donations tell a different story.
Trump vows to attack climate science; states must now prove an energy transition is possible in a time of soaring costs and deficits.
Nationally, Big Oil overwhelmingly supports Republicans; in New Mexico it’s a different story.
Faced with putting up hefty bonds to clean up their mess, operators are instead taking a pass on selling off dying wells.
Trump election likely marks the end of a federal response to worsening air pollution in the Permian Basin.
Misnamed commission oversees the state’s vast oil and gas industry. Critics say it’s all a smoke screen.
Former ConocoPhillips economist Marianne Kah on the election: Whether it’s Harris or Trump, the outcome likely won’t affect oil production.
A Democrat-on-Democrat Assembly race for a district facing extreme weather could shape the state’s climate policy.
As a planned community near the Rockies rises, so do concerns over a fracking operation that would stretch under the homes.
Proposition 4 would fund infrastructure to relieve brutally hot days such as those that just scorched Los Angeles.
With billions up for grabs and scores of air quality violations to its name, CNX tries to recast itself as a climate warrior.
Activists question whether the state would protect communities of color if the EPA is stripped of its watchdog powers.
Study uncovers thousands of undocumented quakes, underscoring the link between injection sites and seismic activity.
From hurricanes to wildfires to droughts, every region of Texas is threatened by man-made climate change, vulnerability index shows.
A $5 million prime-time ad campaign is aimed at climate policies the industry claims make life miserable for Californians.
The data is clear: The village of Loving in the Permian Basin has been hit hard by waves of pollutants from Big Oil, yet the EPA hasn’t acted to force a cleanup.
Plans call for millions of tons of carbon dioxide to be piped across the state to the Central Valley and Sacramento delta for burial.
Activists say pumping carbon into the ground is risky; supporters say it’s a vital tool for a green future.
During Colorado’s ‘ozone season,’ children and adults alike stay indoors. Drilling wells near the suburbs could make it worse.
With the EPA hamstrung by the Supreme Court and shaky state funding, New Mexico could face a future with reduced protections.
A plan for drilling 156 oil and gas wells near a Superfund site has driven suburban residents to action.
A new state law mandates that oil companies put up money to plug wells before acquiring them. It could fail its first big test, putting taxpayers on the hook.
Environmentalists fear leaks, explosions, earthquakes and more from a carbon capture bill with bipartisan support.
Emails show Diversified largely kept the state in the dark as it fired up its bitcoin mining operation.
No state has punched more holes in its bedrock than the Lone Star State. The environmental risks are staggering, and so are the clean up costs
After a decade of lobbying, SoCalGas is planning to blend hydrogen into gas lines serving a mostly Latino town in the San Joaquin Valley.
With billions in tax credits at stake, Pennsylvania gas producer CNX wants in on the hydrogen revolution
A campaign touting the oil and gas industry’s environmental progress says its energy-producing hydrocarbons are very clean, but not all of its claims can be verified.
Production, distribution, power generation, carbon capture all in the works: Questions, concerns, confusion abound.
Despite efforts to rein in emissions, state is unlikely to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, group says.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to ramp up the renewable fuel carries risks: increased emissions and pollution.
An oil and gas firm planned to convert a New Mexico water well into a disposal site for toxic wastewater. A familiar face stood in its way.
For one West Texas rancher, the orphaned wells have become both a mission and an existential threat.
California will pilot a program to reduce climate emissions from buildings without displacing tenants. Facing a deficit, Gov. Newsom proposes slashing its budget by a third.
Oil and gas firm plans new wells near Aurora Reservoir and the Lowry Landfill Superfund site.
But a tax break for low-producing stripper wells gets slipped into a package with green energy breaks.
Opponents say a program that gives valuable credits for making fuels from crops and dairy waste props up fossil fuels companies and pollutes nearby communities.
Contributions rise for Democrats as Legislature debates industry regulation.
“Polluting behemoth” Homer City Generating Station was the state’s largest coal-fired power plant.
New and updated regulations, a royalties increase and enforcement funding await major debate.
Ten years of meetings and plans abruptly dumped; future plans uncertain.
A bill in the Legislature would advance Pennsylvania’s meager renewable energy development. Trade groups are already putting their foot down.
New bills could curb industry excesses; enforcement agencies offered small increases.
Powerful lobbyists represent both oil and gas interests and environmental groups.
The company at the center of the settlement is called a “poster child” for state Oil and Gas Act reforms.
Kern County wants to use billions in federal tax credits to collect and bury carbon. To do so, it would build new facilities to produce more of the most abundant greenhouse gas.
California Air Resources Board ordered staff not to engage with ex-colleague after he questioned gas industry claims.
The 1935 Oil and Gas Act outlines oversight of fossil fuel production in the state. It hasn’t been updated in decades.
Voluntary agreement on health and safety reforms hailed as progress but critics say it lacks teeth.
Critics say Railroad Commission and politicians focus on business, not environmental protection.
State hydrogen projects promoted, killed; governor goes to Australian hydrogen conference with oil and gas reps.
An idle well fee program is masking vast cleanup costs while harming residents and the climate.
Tension over energy industry oversight has sparked a rare agreement between climate activists and the oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, report after report shows greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise in New Mexico.
If signed by Gov. Newsom, the legislation would set a precedent by requiring large companies to disclose total greenhouse gas emissions.
Industry lobbyists targeting legislators with “myth after myth” to stop emissions disclosure bill, says key environmental group.
As the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative stalls in the courts, front-line communities ask the administration to prioritize their input.
The legacy of fossil fuel development endures in leaks, spills and neglect.
Sempra is pitching lawmakers on industry-friendly climate solutions paid by ratepayers.
Following watchdog’s advice, senators shrink tax giveaway program for oil and gas.
The state’s largest fossil fuel companies won a new loophole big enough for a liquified natural gas plant.
Residents and scientists had called for research on health risks for years, while industry campaign denied links.
Emissions disclosure bill is testing the state’s climate resolve in the face of industry misinformation.
Environmental groups fault the Railroad Commission for lax oversight, warn of health impacts.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor refused to take up the bill in a committee, for the second year in a row, as divestment movement grows.
Developers tout hydrogen as a clean energy source; Navajo opponents say it is another way outsiders will profit by harming their environment and health.
State senator cites story, which revealed oil lobbyist’s misleading tactics.
Program at San Juan College School of Energy would certify “clean” fossil fuels.
Two blocked climate bills show the oil and gas industry, related unions can still sway the new Democratic House majority.
Legislation aims to shine a light on corporate climate pollution and carbon offsets.
A new bill would marry labor, environmental and educational interests — potentially forging a new path for bipartisan climate policy.
Industry is ‘misadvertising’ a carbon capture bill in order to obscure its risky intent, according to an oil and gas advocate.
With water use growing, arid Western states are asking for new regulations.
After a deal last year kneecapped regulators’ ability to address the crisis of abandoned oil and gas wells, Dems aim to reset environmental law.
Lawsuit argues the state is not equally upholding environmental protections enshrined in its constitution.
The plan by Extraction would have led to horizontal drilling under hundreds of acres of scenic Boulder County lands purchased with taxpayer dollars.
Petroleum industry supports tax breaks for renewable energy projects but legislators refuse.
Homer City Generating Station has been used to delay environmental regulations. Could the infamous site become a symbol for the just transition?
Watchdogs call for creation of an environmental justice office, better monitoring of Clean Air Act violations.
Critics call for removal of state agency’s economic mandate.