New Mexico imposes oil and gas moratorium on state land near schools - By Susan Montoya Bryan And Christopher L. Keller Associated Press
Members of the Navajo community have complained to Samuel Sage for years about the noise and vibrations that rattle their homes.
They tell him about the dust kicked up by heavy trucks traveling the surrounding dirt roads and the smells that come from some of the oil and natural gas wells and tank batteries that dot the land around their Navajo community of Counselor in northwestern New Mexico.
On one day recently, Sage stood on a hill overlooking a public school that serves Counselor. He pointed to wells and tanks in the distance, painted green to blend in with juniper trees and sagebrush.
"Monitoring shows pollution heading either toward the school across the highway or toward the chapter depending on which way the wind is blowing," he said.
Sage, the former president of the Navajo Chapter in Counselor and current community services coordinator, is among a group of residents and environmentalists who have sued New Mexico for allegedly failing to prevent pollution in northwestern and southeastern parts of the state.
About 144,000 people — 7% of the state's population — live or attend a school or day care within a half-mile radius of oil and gas production, according to the lawsuit. The suit also states that almost all of the elementary, middle and high schools in the Hobbs district in Lea County as well as school districts in Eddy County are surrounded by oil and gas extraction and production sites on state, federal and private lands.
On Thursday, New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard issued an executive order that includes a ban on all new oil and gas leases on state trust land within a mile of schools or other educational institutions, including day care centers, preschools and sports facilities that students use.
The order, which takes effect Thursday, also calls for her office — which oversees thousands of square miles of surface lands and mineral rights — to review all existing oil and gas leases on state trust land within a mile of schools to assess compliance with state regulations.
"We have an entire list of things we need to get through," Garcia Richard said Thursday when asked about the review process. "It's a lot of work, and while we're prioritizing it's going to take us a while to get through the list."
According to State Land Office estimates, there could be nearly 120 schools within one mile of oil and gas operations on federal, state, Tribal and private lands.
An Associated Press analysis of Oil Conservation Division and State Land Office data for active and new applications for permits to drill on state trust land found nearly 100 oil or gas wells within a mile of at least one school. That's out of more than 13,000 active and new oil and gas leases on state trust land.
The Hobbs School District has one of the highest concentrations of oil or gas wells located near school buildings, according to the analysis.
Hobbs is in the heart of the Permian Basin, one of the most prolific oil plays in the world. The revenue from development there is fueling record state spending on education and other social programs.
Hobbs Superintendent Gene Strickland said his district supports the industry.
"We do not feel the industry is harmful to the district by any proximity of oil and gas wells within the region," he said. "The industry is made up of individuals who are members of our community. We share the same interests and also want nothing adverse to happen to the community we call home."
Within a mile of Jefferson Elementary School on the west side of Hobbs are about 45 wells with active and new applications for permits to drill for oil on state trust land, according to the AP analysis. Heizer Middle School on the south side of Hobbs has 13. Those numbers increase when oil and gas wells outside state trust land are included.
To the north, Lybrook Elementary School near Counselor has 11 active oil wells on state trust land within a mile, according to the state data.
Felix Garcia, superintendent of the Jemez Mountain Public Schools, said the district opted to move the Lybrook school years ago since the previous campus was near a natural gas processing plant, and there were concerns about safety.
"I think it's good that people are starting to raise some concerns because a lot of times nobody looks into it and then down the line you have health issues with the community," Garcia said.
The Western Energy Alliance and other industry groups have argued that producers have been working with regulators and university researchers on drone and satellite technologies that allow for leaks to be more quickly detected and fixed, resulting in emission reductions despite increases in production.
Environmentalists argue that schools and public health can be protected by establishing setbacks or installing more equipment to reduce pollution. New Mexico currently has no setback requirements, although the state has adopted rules aimed at reducing methane emissions and other pollution from the industry.
It was not immediately clear how much revenue the state might have to forego by creating the new school buffer zones. Revenue that results from development on state trust land benefits public schools, universities, state hospitals and some water projects. In November, the State Land Office announced it had processed more than $300 million in oil and gas royalties for October, setting a new one-month record for the agency. Revenues for the last fiscal year topped a record $2.4 billion.
New Mexico sues manufacturers of 'forever chemicals' amid health concerns - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico's attorney general and its Environment Department filed suit Thursday against the manufacturers of so-called "forever chemicals," commonly referred to as PFAS, seeking monetary damages to defray the costs of environmental monitoring and cleanups that they say are inevitable.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that 21 companies named in the lawsuit have contributed to environmental contamination in New Mexico through their production and distribution of the chemicals, despite knowing for decades that the compounds pose significant risk to human health.
"We have to step forward and try to protect our community ... to hold corporations accountable who have for too long placed their bottom line and placed quarterly profits ahead of the interests of our community, over our natural environment and over public health," Torrez said at a news conference Thursday in Albuquerque.
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been linked to cancer and other health problems in humans. They are called "forever chemicals" because they don't degrade in the environment and remain in the bloodstream.
New Mexico environmental regulators say they are concerned about forever chemicals seeping into aquifers in a state where 80% of residents rely on underground water for household consumption.
"These companies had knowledge that these chemicals cause harm and they still chose profit over people," state Environment Secretary James Kenney said.
In recent months, states from Rhode Island to California have filed similar lawsuits against major chemical manufacturers including 3M and Dupont on accusations of covering up harm caused to the environment and public health by forever chemicals.
In March, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first federal limits on forever chemicals in drinking water, limiting them to the lowest level that tests can detect. Kenney said that New Mexico previously petitioned the EPA to treat PFAS as hazardous.
Corporate and industry representatives could not immediately be reached for a response to the lawsuit. The industry group American Chemistry Council has voiced support for "strong, science-based regulation of PFAS chemistries" while warning that overly broad restrictions could impact economic growth, employment and the resiliency of industrial supply chains.
3M announced in December that it will phase out the manufacturing of so-called "forever chemicals" and try to get them out of all their products within two years.
The toxic industrial compounds have been used extensively in firefighting foam, resulting in environmental contamination at military installations and adjoining communities. The state of New Mexico and the U.S. Department of Defense are at odds over responsibilities for mitigating PFAS contamination at installations including Cannon Air Force Base and Holloman Air Force Base.
Near Cannon, the Highland Dairy in Clovis euthanized more than 3,000 cows in 2022 after confirmation of PFAS contamination in the herd — and the milk the cows produced.
Torrez said New Mexico officials are aware of corporate maneuvers aimed at shifting liability to shell companies and are determined to recover significant financial damages nonetheless.
Man sentenced to life in killing of mother of 2 New Mexico State Police officers - Associated Press
A Mexican national convicted of the 2019 slaying of the mother of two New Mexico State Police officers in a case that drew national attentione has been sentenced to life in prison.
Luis Talamantes-Romero also received an additional prison term of 26½ years on Wednesday for eight other felony convictions in the death of Jacqueline Vigil.
He declined to address the court before his sentencing.
Talamantes-Romero, 35, was convicted in April of first-degree murder along with aggravated burglary, attempted armed robbery, tampering with evidence, conspiracy and other charges.
Authorities said Vigil, 55, was killed outside her northwest Albuquerque home in an attempted burglary in November 2019. She was shot in her driveway as she prepared to leave for a gym.
The case went unsolved for months, drawing the attention of then-President Donald Trump as he pushed his tough-on-crime agenda. Vigil's family also traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump.
Prosecutors said the crime was random as Talamantes-Romero and a passenger drove around Vigil's upscale neighborhood looking for cars to burglarize.
The man who was with Talamantes-Romero when Vigil was shot agreed to testify against him as a condition of his plea agreement with the state on charges unrelated to the murder, according to authorities.
Grand jury charges ex-GOP candidate with election interference in shootings at lawmakers' homes — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A failed political candidate has been indicted on federal charges including election interference in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque, according to a grand jury indictment that was unsealed Wednesday.
The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque takes aim at former Republican candidate Solomon Peña and two alleged accomplices with additional conspiracy and weapons-related charges in connection with the shootings in December 2022 and January of this year on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker.
The attacks came amid a surge of threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials across the country after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez highlighted that the shootings targeted the homes of two county commissioners shortly after their certification of the 2022 election.
"Peña targeted several of these public officials because, in their official capacity, they certified the election, which he lost," Uballez said at a news conference. "In America, voters pick their leaders and would-be leaders don't get to pick which voters they heed, which rules apply to them, or which laws to follow."
No one was injured in the shootings. But in one case bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator's 10-year-old daughter.
The new indictment outlines smart-phone communications including text messages by Peña in the days following the Nov. 8, 2022, election that pinpoint the locations of officials' homes, allege election-rigging and confide to a politically ally about plans to "press the attack."
Text messages in the indictment show the 40-year-old candidate bristling with outrage as Bernalillo County commissions certified the results of the midterm election and his own overwhelming defeat as candidate for a seat in the state House of Representatives. Federal authorities say Peña hired others to conduct the shootings and carried out at least one shooting himself.
Hours before the first shooting on Dec. 4, 2022, Peña texted a Republican political ally, who also lost a bid for state representative, to say that "we have to act. I'm continuing my study of election rigging. The enemy will eventually break."
Amid the shootings, Peña later texted one of several unnamed conspirators in the indictment to say, "It is our duty as Statesmen and Patriots, to stop the oligarchs from taking over our country."
Elizabeth Honce, a defense attorney for Peña, said her client maintains his innocence. Peña has been held without bail since his January arrest on charges in state district court related to the shootings. Those charges will be dismissed in deference to the federal indictment as Peña is transferred to federal custody, authorities said.
Federal charges were also filed against 22-year-old Jose Louise Trujillo and 41-year-old Demetrio Trujillo on allegations that they assisted Peña in obtaining vehicles and firearms — and that they "pulled the trigger themselves to fire bullets into the homes of the victims."
Jose Trujillo was arrested in January on an outstanding warrant in a car with a stash of more than 800 fentanyl pills and two firearms, leading to a break in the investigation as officers traced at least one gun to bullet casings found the same day at one of the shootings. Authorities say Demetrio Trujillo was arrested Wednesday, while they declined to comment directly on whether several unnamed accomplices in the indictment would be charged.
John Anderson, an attorney for Jose Trujillo, declined to comment on the indictment when contacted Wednesday.
Police have described Peña as the instigator of a politically motivated conspiracy leading to shootings at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators. Charges against the three defendants include the use of an automatic weapon.
The shootings began Dec. 4, when eight rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa. Days later, state Rep. Javier Martínez's home was targeted. On Dec. 11, more than a dozen rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley, police said. Martínez became the Democratic state House speaker in January.
The final related shooting, targeting state Sen. Linda Lopez's home, unfolded in the midnight hour of Jan. 3. Police said more than a dozen shots were fired, including three that Lopez said passed through the bedroom of her sleeping daughter.
Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico secretary of state, said she was "pleased to see the federal government pursuing this case with the seriousness it deserves."
Following the shootings, New Mexico state lawmakers this year enacted legislation that provides felony sanctions for intimidation of election regulators and allows some public officials and political candidates to keep their home address off government websites.
Recent assaults on politicians or their households include the hammer-wielding attack on the husband of them-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in October 2022 at the couple's San Francisco home. In July 2022, a man clutching a pointed weapon assaulted Republican candidate for New York governor Lee Zeldin — a congressman at the time — on stage at a speaking event.
Feds update map detailing New Mexico internet access, revised after inaccuracies - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
A federal map, released on Tuesday, lays out who does and doesn’t have reliable, high-speed internet access in New Mexico. After errors in the map released previously, the updated version could make the difference in the state getting hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money to set up broadband.
New Mexico’s broadband officials have been, for half a year, trying to correct errors they found in the first version of the map that federal officials released in November 2022.
Federal Communications Commission chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel called that initial map a “pre-production draft” that was just a starting point in drafting communities’ internet access. She said it was also the first location-based map of broadband access and the most accurate to date.
The new version of the map fixed mistakes in three million places, and officials are still working on addressing another one million inaccuracies states found, according to the FCC.
Natalie Runyan is the geospatial information officer with New Mexico’s Office of Broadband Access and Expansion. She explained at the state’s annual broadband summit last week that there are many more New Mexicans that don’t have good access to internet than were displayed in the first map.
State officials took up over 188,000 broadband inaccuracies they found in the first version of the map with the FCC. That includes mistakes in pinning down communities with broadband, without it or with bad internet in the state.
New Mexico broadband officials also challenged locations that weren’t on the map at all.
The updated map released Tuesday shows more than 20,000 locations in New Mexico with or without broadband that didn’t make it onto the first version, according to the FCC.
That includes 13,329 tribal land locations. Taos and Cochiti Pueblos nearly weren’t on the map at all until this update, according to the FCC.
New Mexico can continue to work with the FCC on any remaining or future inaccuracies on the revised map.