Albuquerque to pilot on-demand public transit - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The city of Albuquerque is rolling out its own ridesharing-type service Monday. It’s an approach called “microtransit” and is meant to meet the needs of those in neighborhoods without bus service.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the city is piloting the “ABQ Ride Connect” program in the North Valley, Old Town and West Mesa.
Six-seater vans with room for a wheelchair will be available on request. The vans can pick riders up at home and drive them to nearby bus stops, grocery stores or even doctor’s appointments.
Mayor Tim Keller says the service is “about getting the last mile.”
The free service will be available weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through the ABQ Ride Connect app.
The city purchased five electric vans for the program for $110,000 each. Until sufficient charging stations are ready, it will use SunVans to meet initial demand.
While the city is short on bus drivers, the vans can be driven without a commercial license, which could make the job more accessible.
The city will study the program over a one-year period, including asking users for feedback.
Judge schedules sentencing for movie armorer in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A judge has scheduled sentencing next month for a movie set armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film "Rust," court records indicated Wednesday.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury last week in the shooting on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal in October 2021. Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, with trial set for July.
Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer set aside two hours for Gutierrez-Reed's sentencing hearing on the morning of April 15. Marlowe Sommer also is assigned to oversee Baldwin's trial.
Involuntary manslaughter carries a felony sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Gutierrez-Reed is being held pending sentencing at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
Defense attorney Jason Bowles indicated last week that Gutierrez-Reed plans to appeal the conviction.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the gun's hammer, but not the trigger.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed at a two-week trial for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of "Rust" where it was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun-safety protocols.
"Rust" assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and completed a sentence of six months unsupervised probation.
US energy industry methane emissions are triple what government thinks, study finds - By Seth Borenstein AP Science Writer
American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage, a new comprehensive study calculates.
But because more than half of these methane emissions are coming from a tiny number of oil and gas sites, 1% or less, this means the problem is both worse than the government thought but also fairly fixable, said the lead author of a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.
The same issue is happening globally. Large methane emissions events around the world detected by satellites grew 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 with more than 5 million metric tons spotted in major fossil fuel leaks, the International Energy Agency reported Wednesday in their Global Methane Tracker 2024. World methane emissions rose slightly in 2023 to 120 million metric tons, the report said.
"This is really an opportunity to cut emissions quite rapidly with targeted efforts at these highest emitting sites," said lead author Evan Sherwin, an energy and policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab who wrote the study while at Stanford University. "If we can get this roughly 1% of sites under control, then we're halfway there because that's about half of the emissions in most cases."
Sherwin said the fugitive emissions come throughout the oil and gas production and delivery system, starting with gas flaring. That's when firms release natural gas to the air or burn it instead of capturing the gas that comes out of energy extraction. There's also substantial leaks throughout the rest of the system, including tanks, compressors and pipelines, he said.
"It's actually straightforward to fix," Sherwin said.
In general about 3% of the U.S. gas produced goes wasted into the air, compared to the Environmental Protection Agency figures of 1%, the study found. Sherwin said that's a substantial amount, about 6.2 million tons per hour in leaks measured over the daytime. It could be lower at night, but they don't have those measurements.
The study gets that figure using one million anonymized measurements from airplanes that flew over 52% of American oil wells and 29% of gas production and delivery system sites over a decade. Sherwin said the 3% leak figure is the average for the six regions they looked at and they did not calculate a national average.
Methane over a two-decade period traps about 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but only lasts in the atmosphere for about a decade instead of hundreds of years like carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.
About 30% of the world's warming since pre-industrial times comes from methane emissions, said IEA energy supply unit head Christophe McGlade. The United States is the No. 1 oil and gas production methane emitter, with China polluting even more methane from coal, he said.
Last December, the Biden administration issued a new rule forcing the U.S. oil and natural gas industry to cut its methane emissions. At the same time at the United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai, 50 oil companies around the world pledged to reach near zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in operations by 2030. That Dubai agreement would trim about one-tenth of a degree Celsius, nearly two-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit, from future warming, a prominent climate scientist told The Associated Press.
Monitoring methane from above, instead of at the sites or relying on company estimates, is a growing trend. Earlier this month the market-based Environmental Defense Fund and others launched MethaneSAT into orbit. For energy companies, the lost methane is valuable with Sherwin's study estimate it is worth about $1 billion a year.
About 40% of the global methane emissions from oil, gas and coal could have been avoided at no extra cost, which is "a massive missed opportunity," IEA's McGlade said. The IEA report said if countries do what they promised in Dubai they could cut half of the global methane pollution by 2030, but actions put in place so far only would trim 20% instead, "a very large gap between emissions and actions," McGlade said.
"It is critical to reduce methane emissions if the world is to meet climate targets," said Cornell University methane researcher Robert Horwath, who wasn't part of Sherwin's study.
"Their analysis makes sense and is the most comprehensive study by far out there on the topic," said Howarth, who is updating figures in a forthcoming study to incorporate the new data.
The overflight data shows the biggest leaks are in the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico.
"It's a region of rapid growth, primarily driven by oil production," Sherwin said. "So when the drilling happens, both oil and gas comes out, but the main thing that the companies want to sell in most cases was the oil. And there wasn't enough pipeline capacity to take the gas away" so it spewed into the air instead.
Contrast that with tiny leak rates found in drilling in the Denver region and the Pennsylvania area. Denver leaks are so low because of local strictly enforced regulations and Pennsylvania is more gas-oriented, Sherwin said.
This shows a real problem with what National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association methane-monitoring scientist Gabrielle Petron calls "super-emitters."
"Reliably detecting and fixing super-emitters is a low hanging fruit to reduce real life greenhouse gas emissions," Petron, who wasn't part of Sherwin's study, said. "This is very important because these super-emitter emissions are ignored by most 'official' accounting."
Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who also wasn't part of the study, said, "a few facilities are poisoning the air for everyone."
"For more than a decade, we've been showing that the industry emits far more methane than they or government agencies admit," Jackson said. "This study is capstone evidence. And yet nothing changes."
Republican New Mexico Senate and House leaders won't seek reelection - Associated Press
The top-ranked Republicans in the New Mexico House and Senate won't seek reelection this year as their party seeks a stronger footing in the Democrat-led Legislature.
Senate Republicans are reckoning with the first election since a redistricting plan from Democrats merged GOP-led districts.
Senate Republican leader Greg Baca of Belen said his decision to leave the Senate by year's end was informed by conversations with his family, prayer and attention to new political boundaries adopted by the Democrat-led Legislature in 2021.
"Careful observers of the progressive plan to pit two Hispanic Republicans against each other through redistricting may have seen this coming," said Baca in a statement, while endorsing Republican state Sen. Joshua Sanchez of Bosque in the merged district. "In short, I refuse to allow the radical left to pit brother against brother."
House minority leader T. Ryan Lane of Aztec also chose not to seek reelection, saying he wants to spend more time with his wife and two sons.
Lane, an attorney who runs a craft ice cream store with his wife, said the Republicans are well positioned to gain seats in the House.
"I think the people of New Mexico are waking up to the fact that progressive politics are why New Mexico is consistently last," he said. "I feel like I've left my caucus in the House Republicans to be positioned well for success moving forward."
State legislative candidates raced against a Tuesday-evening deadline to submit signature petitions that can qualify them for the state's June 4 primary and November general election.
Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-1 in the state Senate, amid a wave of retirement announcements that could tilt the partisan balance next year. In the House, Democrats currently have a 25-15 seat advantage after winning back the House majority in 2016. The entire Legislature is up for election in November.
In drawing new Senate districts, the Legislature embraced recommendations from Native American communities for shoring up Indigenous voting blocs in the northwest of the state. But Republicans at the same time bristled at provisions that merged two Republican-held districts.
The Legislature's annual session adjourned in mid-February with approval of several public safety initiatives and an annual budget plan that slows down a spending spree linked to an oil production bonanza in the Permian Basin that overlaps southeastern New Mexico and portions of Texas.
Separately on Tuesday, four state House Republican legislators from southeastern New Mexico and Farmington urged the state land commissioner to reverse course on her decision to withhold some lease sales for oil and gas development until the Legislature agrees to raise royalty rates in premium tracts from 20% to 25%.
A letter to Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard warns of possible unintended consequences including job losses and reduced government income if petroleum producers redirect investments from New Mexico to other oil fields. It was signed by Republican state Reps. Jim Townsend of Artesia, Larry Scott of Hobbs, Rod Montoya of Farmington and Jared Hembree of Roswell.
State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said the state will forgo a trove of income and investment returns over the lifetime of future leases if royalties stay capped at 20%. In New Mexico, royalty payments from oil and gas development on state trust land are deposited in a multibillion-dollar investment trust that benefits public schools, universities and hospitals.
The accountability and budget office of the Legislature says a 25% royalty rate cap would increase annual revenues by $50 million to $75 million.
Unique formal deal reached for middle Rio Grande irrigation district, state - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
New Mexico and Albuquerque-based irrigation officials have signed off on a first-of-its-kind cooperative agreement for “emergency, short-term and long-term” management of the Rio Grande.
Last week, the Interstate Stream Commission voted unanimously to allow its staff to enter an agreement with the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which was signed Monday evening after receiving approval from the irrigation’s board.
The deal will allow these governing bodies to better manage flood prevention, improve “water conveyance,” meet interstate legal agreements and build species habitat for endangered animals in the Middle Rio Grande, said Hannah Riseley-White, the executive director for the Interstate Stream Commission.
“It exemplifies our commitment to each other to work together in solving and tackling these problems,” she told commissioners in the March 5 meeting.
The five-year agreement will allow for communication and coordination between the state and irrigation district officials and outline responsibilities in the partnership, according to a packet given to commission members.
The Interstate Stream Commission is a division of the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, charged with the “broad powers” to protect, conserve, develop and investigate New Mexico surface waters – such as rivers, streams and lakes.
The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, based in Albuquerque, is the governmental body which oversees irrigation for land between Cochiti Dam to the Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge. Irrigated lands in the district are ballparked between 55,000 to 58,000 acres with about 11,000 active irrigators, said Conservation Program Supervisor Casey Ish.
Top officials for the irrigation district and the state agency said the agreement puts an unofficial two-decade partnership to paper.
The state and district face colliding concerns of climate change causing more fires and floods in the region; difficulty in sending water downstream for legal agreements and a need to build habitats for endangered species, Riseley-White said.
As federal funds pour in from infrastructure and climate-adaptation projects, the agreement will help address difficult reaches in the irrigation district’s area, Jason Casuga, chief engineer and CEO for the irrigation district, told commissioners last week.
In a summary given to commissioners, the partnership is necessary to meet legal obligations to Texas and Mexico users downstream, made in treaties and a nearly 80-year old agreement.
“The looming water crisis is prompting an ‘all hands-on deck’ approach by water managers in the Rio Grande basin to ensure New Mexico can maintain water deliveries within the Middle Rio Grande under the Rio Grande Compact,” the summary said.
WHAT’S IN THE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT?
The agreement summarizes five projects expected under the partnership, but does not list costs or funding sources, saying that would be addressed in further contract negotiations.
Riseley-White said the parent agreement allows the state to move federal, state and local funds into contracted projects faster.
THE FIVE ANTICIPATED MUTUAL PROJECTS
1. Buying and renting heavy equipment for floodplain restoration and vegetation removal for “improvements in conveyance” in the Isleta Reach and other Middle Rio Grande reaches
2. Contracts for “bosque rehabilitation, channel maintenance, infrastructure,” in the Isleta Reach and other non-specified Middle Rio Grande reaches
3. Contracts for environmental monitoring, scientific studies and engineering
4. Development of an Isleta Reach River Management Plan for the active river channel and floodplain on the southern boundary of Isleta Pueblo to the San Acacia Diversion Dam, in “cooperation with other governmental agencies and stakeholders”
5. Evaluate anticipated critical threats in the Isleta Reach for immediate action
CONCERNS RAISED BY INTERSTATE STREAM COMMISSIONERS
Board members had questions for how the agreement might impact relationships with other irrigation districts and tribal governments of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Sandia and Isleta Pueblos.
At the March 5 meeting, board member Phoebe Suina (Cochiti), a hydrologist, asked if any of the six middle Rio Grande Pueblos were consulted, or going to be included formally in future project planning or agreements.
Riseley-White said the state’s intent would be engaging relevant parties, including tribes, on specific projects.
“I think those six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos are important partners for us in figuring out what this needs to look like, and it will be critical to engage with them effectively,” she said.
Casuga further responded that the projects would target “benefiting all middle Rio Grande users.”
“When we get into project specifics and the funding associated with those, that’s when I think we would engage individually with the constituents who would be affected by this,” he said.
Board member Greg Carrasco, a Las Cruces farmer and rancher, asked if this agreement impacts the state’s relationship with other irrigation districts.
Riesely-White replied that the agreement has no impact on other relationships.
State Engineer Mike Hamman addressed the commission, calling the agreement a “starting point” for the state to work with other irrigation districts, Pueblos and other water users to address “mutual interests” and leverage federal dollars.
Hamman noted upcoming settlements in adjudication for the six middle Rio Grande Pueblos’ water rights and the pending settlement agreement in the Rio Grande U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit between Texas and New Mexico, could operationally impact the Rio Grande and Rio Chama.
He said that meeting those legal agreements to ensure water in rivers flows to recipients poses a challenge to both entities, requiring a “symbiotic relationship” to turn it around.
“We’re in a compact-deficit situation drifting towards potential violation in theory,” Hamman said, referencing the Middle Rio Grande’s debit of about 25,000 acre feet owed to Elephant Butte Dam for users downstream in Texas and Mexico.
Hamman said both the irrigation district and the state were concerned about delays in construction on the El Vado Dam, and how that is impacting sending water downstream.
Before the vote, Suina urged soliciting Pueblos’ inclusion on upcoming projects, saying the land and water stewardship of the Pueblos has often been overlooked in the past century of water planning.
She noted that Pueblo governments have pushed back against assertions that the middle Rio Grande is “at the end of its life cycle,” saying that the river itself is a necessity.
“I want to encourage that engagement, encourage the collaboration, I see this [agreement] as a step towards that,” Suina said. “But even in that state, just not to forget our Pueblo communities.”
Suina voted yes, but appended her vote with a comment.
“I have confidence in director Riseley-White to have that Pueblo engagement that enables me to say yes to this,” she said.
Afghan refugee stands trial in first of 3 killings that shocked Albuquerque's Muslim community - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Fear coursed through the Muslim community in New Mexico's largest city over several days in the summer of 2022 as authorities scrambled to determine if race or religion might have been behind the ambush-style killings of three men from the community.
It was not long before the investigation shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors on Tuesday described as the "willful and very deliberate" actions of another member of the Muslim community – Muhammad Syed, an Afghan refugee.
Prosecutors delivered opening statements in what is the first trial for Syed, 53, who settled in the U.S. several years ago with his family.
Syed, who speaks Pashto and no English, has remained in custody without bond since his arrest. He is charged with three counts of murder and four charges of tampering with evidence. Police also have identified him as the suspect in the killing of a fourth Muslim man, but no charges have been filed in that case.
Syed faces separate trials for each victim, the first being 41-year-old Aftab Hussein. The other trials will happen over the course of the coming months.
Syed denied involvement in the killings after being detained just days after police put out a public plea for help with the unsolved killings that had rocked Albuquerque's Muslim community. Authorities had shared photographs of a vehicle believed to be involved in the crimes, resulting in tips that led to Syed.
Police stopped him in his vehicle in August 2022 more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Albuquerque. He told authorities he was on his way to Texas to find a new home for his family, saying he was concerned about the killings in Albuquerque.
Prosecutors painted a picture for jurors of the night Hussein was killed, saying it was around 10 p.m. when he pulled up to his apartment complex and parked. Hussein had just stepped out of his car, still holding his keys in his hand, when gunfire erupted and he was struck multiple times.
Deputy District Attorney David Waymire showed jurors the rifle he said Syed used, telling them it was found during a subsequent search of his home. He also told jurors that forensic examination determined that casings found at the scene had been fired from that weapon.
Cellphone records indicated that Syed was at the scene before and during the shooting and that Syed had saved a note in his phone — 12 minutes before the shooting — that talked about killing Hussein, Waymire said.
"The evidence will show this was a willful and very deliberate killing," he said. "And the evidence will show Muhammad Syed is guilty."
While some court documents remain sealed, others shed no light on a possible motive, leaving the community struggling to understand why Hussein and the other men were targeted. Prosecutors offered no further insight during their opening statements and didn't discuss any interactions that Syed might have had with the victim.
Defense attorney Thomas Clark told jurors that prosecutors have no evidence that Syed was the one who pulled the trigger and that there were others living in his home who also had access to the rifle, his car and his phone. Clark said the forensic evidence that will be presented by prosecutors does not include any fingerprints or DNA that would implicate his client.
"I ask you during the course of this trial to pay very close attention to what you hear and pay an equal amount of attention to what you don't hear," Clark said. "A determination can't be based on speculation or conjecture."
Prosecutors during previous court hearings described Syed as having a violent history. His public defenders have argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
Syed also is accused of killing Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was gunned down Aug. 1 while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city's south side.
The judge is prohibiting prosecutors from directly introducing as evidence statements Syed made to a detective while being questioned. Defense attorneys argued that Syed's rights were violated because the detective, through an interpreter, did not adequately inform Syed of his right to a court-appointed attorney.
Police officers and detectives testified Tuesday about arriving at the scene after Hussein had been killed. They found him lying next to his car with multiple gunshot wounds — from his ear and neck down to his legs with exit wounds in his feet.
Prosecutors showed photos of Hussein's bullet-riddled car and said the victim was killed nearly instantly. They also said that one of the projectiles recovered from his body and casings found at the scene had been fired from the rifle seized from Syed's home.