New Mexico

Bid to overhaul New Mexico oil and gas regulations clears first hurdle amid litigation

Published

2 years ago

January 25, 2024

Bid to overhaul New Mexico oil and gas regulations clears first hurdle amid litigation

SANTA FE, N.M. — An effort to modernize state oversight of a thriving petroleum industry in the nation’s No. 2 state for oil production advanced past its first committee vetting Thursday at the New Mexico Legislature.

The bill would rewrite portions of the state’s 1930s-era Oil and Gas Act in order to help regulators keep pace with the industry’s meteoric growth in recent years — and increasingly assertive calls to hold the sector accountable for air pollution, spills and the costly cleanup of equipment and abandoned wells.

It advanced on 6-5 vote of the lead House committee on natural resources, over the objections of small and moderate sized oil producers — but with the public endorsements of industry heavyweights Occidental Petroleum and EOG Resources.

The initiative would increase financial assurances for well plugging and cleanups, while ratcheting up administrative fees and penalties for regulatory violations. The bill also would give regulators greater authority over applications to transfer ownership of wells that often change hands when oil and natural gas output declines.

Bill cosponsor Rep. Matthew McQueen of Galisteo urged colleagues to rally behind the bill, warning that a downturn in the industry could saddle the state with immense liabilities for orphaned wells.

“If we can’t put appropriate safeguards in place during record (oil) production then we’re never going to have those safeguards in place,” he said. “We’ve had boom industries in New Mexico before. We had uranium mining — they went bust. We’re still dealing with that legacy that was not cleaned up.”

Initial provisions were dropped from the bill that would have established no-drilling buffer zones around schools, residences, surface waters and critical habitats across New Mexico, to the dismay of environmentalists and community advocates who vowed to press legislators to reinstate setback requirements. The State Land Office recently imposed its own buffer around schools.

The Democratic-led Legislature and governor are being sued over alleged failures to meet constitutional provisions for protecting against oil and gas pollution, as fed-up residents living near oil wells and environmental groups turn to the judiciary for relief. A lawsuit filed in May 2023 seeks compliance with a “pollution control clause” of the New Mexico Constitution.

“This bill utterly fails to impose any real restrictions on the oil industry and does nothing to protect frontline communities from the toxic pollution they’re exposed to every single day,” said Gail Evans, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity and lead counsel in the lawsuit to plaintiffs including Indigenous Lifeways, Pueblo Action Alliance, Youth United for Climate Crisis Action.

Democratic state Rep. Nathan Small of Las Cruces — the lead House budget negotiator — warned that deleted provisions from the bill “would make it extremely difficult and unlikely for these important fiscal protections to move forward.” He voted to advance the bill toward a second vetting before a possible House floor vote.

Ahtza Chavez, executive director of the Native American environmental and social justice group NM Native Vote, participated in working groups on the bill organized by Gov. Lujan Grisham over the past six months, alongside state oil-field regulators and industry representatives.

She called the elimination of setback requirements “devastating” but pledged support for the amended bill.

“They’ve had 90 years to do better and they have not protected our communities,” said Chavez, an Albuquerque resident who is Diné, tracing her ancestry to the Navajo.

The committee-endorsed bill would increase a common financial assurance to remediate multiple wells from a maximum of $250,000 to $10 million. The cap on daily penalties for regulatory violations would increase from $2,500 to as much as $25,000, with no cumulative limit.

Voting against the bill, Republican state Rep. Larry Scott of Hobbs, said the initiative represents an existential threat to small-scale oil and natural gas producers, echoing concerns raised by several businesses.

“The concern is that, with the stroke of a pen, financial assurances and penalties can put these small operators completely out of business,” said Scott, also a petroleum-industry engineer.

The bill would also expand the state’s regulatory authority over other types of well activity in anticipation of a gradual transition away from fossil fuel production — including geothermal projects that harness underground heat to produce electricity, or emerging underground systems of kinetic energy storage.

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New Mexico

Family clarifies why they believe missing New Mexico man is dead

Published

2 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Family clarifies why they believe missing New Mexico man is dead

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – KRQE News 13 has learned more about the disappearance of 36-year-old Joel “Deano” Valdez, and why, nearly three months after he went missing, his family believes he is dead. Valdez went missing on September 18, on his way home after a job on the other end of the state. After weeks of searching, on Monday night, Valdez’s family announced their loved one was dead, but did not provide information to support their claim.

On Tuesday, the family issued a follow-up statement saying they hired a private investigator who obtained interviews from several people who confirmed Valdez’s death. They said that Valdez, a Marine vet and father of three, was headed from Silver City to Coyote back in September but had stopped at a Santa Fe gas station before he vanished.

Media reports described an incident where Valdez may have been preyed upon in his white Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Valdez’s family believes that “something nefarious happened” to him, leading to his demise. Bank statements show Valdez stopped at a gas station and an ATM in Santa Fe before he vanished. His family also said that his credit cards were used by someone else after he went missing.

In the statement released Tuesday, the family said in part, “Waiting for his remains to be found makes it difficult to start the grieving process.

Monday night, a family member said, “To go so long without answers has been heart-wrenching and heartbreaking for all of us. We still don’t have all the answers and hope to one day have some clarity and peace.”

KRQE News 13 asked the Santa Fe Police Department about the incident. They said on the day that Valdez went missing, they received a 911 call about three people breaking into a white pickup truck. The caller said they heard someone inside the truck yelling for help. Before they arrived, Santa Fe police officers were diverted to a higher-priority call.

According to police records, when an officer finally arrived at the scene 45 minutes later, there was nothing to report. KRQE News 13 is cautioning viewers that it is not clear if the 911 incident had anything to do with Valdez or his pickup truck.

New Mexico State Police are in charge of the investigation, and they told KRQE News 13 they are still treating Valdez as a missing persons case.

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New Mexico

New Mexico Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 Day results for Dec. 15, 2025

Published

14 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

The New Mexico Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Dec. 15, 2025, results for each game:

Powerball

23-35-59-63-68, Powerball: 02, Power Play: 4

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 3

Day: 2-3-6

Evening: 4-5-5

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Lotto America

08-11-29-36-50, Star Ball: 07, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 4

Evening: 2-5-0-2

Day: 7-2-1-6

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Roadrunner Cash

01-12-17-26-29

Check Roadrunner Cash payouts and previous drawings here.

Powerball Double Play

20-23-38-42-65, Powerball: 19

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Las Cruces Sun-News editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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New Mexico

New Mexico expanding use of gun and bullet scanning technology to more easily link crimes

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

New Mexico expanding use of gun and bullet scanning technology to more easily link crimes

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – State-of-the-art tech, credited with cracking some of the metro’s highest profile gun crimes, is now getting deployed across the state. A handful of new bullet casing scanners are being deployed in four new regional hubs stretching from Farmington to Roswell. The goal is to link evidence from shooting cases across city and county lines in rural communities. “What makes this different is that we very intentionally distributed these machines and the personnel necessary to run the machines across the state, so that the state itself could conduct its own comprehensive analysis,” said New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

The New Mexico Department of Justice will be at the center of the effort with their new Crime Gun Intelligence Center. He said they’ll be the only AG’s office in the country managing a statewide program that scans bullet casings and guns found at crime scenes. Analysts will then figure out what crime scenes could be connected. The AG is deploying the scanning machines to Farmington, Gallup, Roswell, and Las Cruces. The scans get uploaded in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN database, to see if the same gun was used at different scenes.

It’s the same technology the Albuquerque Police Department used to figure out and arrest the people tied to shootings at elected officials’ homes in Albuquerque. “Instead of waiting weeks and months to connect discovery, investigators now can link shootings from firearms, shell casings, and suspects in a matter of hours or days, and cases that once appeared isolated can now quickly be connected, helping us identify repeat offenders and patterns of violent activity more quickly,” said San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari.

Right now, almost every community outside the metro has to bring in its bullet casing evidence to Albuquerque in order to get it scanned and sent into the federal NIBIN system. The process can take six to 12 months. “Rural communities often cover large geographical areas with limited resources, and crime does not stop at the city limits,” said Sheriff Ferrari.

The attorney general said the machines being deployed will be used as regional hubs, available for any New Mexico police agency to use.

The New Mexico Department of Justice got a million dollars from the feds, with the help of Senator Martin Heinrich, to stand up the system, which they said is ready to start on Tuesday. AG Torrez called out state lawmakers for not helping fund the initiative. “It is a system that is broken. It’s a system that can be fixed. and the only thing we lack at this moment is the political will to do so,” said AG Torrez.

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