skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

House speaker vote update: Johnson wins showdown with GOP hard-liners; President Biden and the First Lady to travel to New Orleans on Monday; Hunger-fighting groups try to prevent cuts to CA food-bank funding; Mississippians urged to donate blood amid critical shortage; Rural telehealth sees more policy wins, but only short-term.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Federal officials present more information about the New Orleans terrorist attack and the Las Vegas cybertruck explosion. Mike Johnson prepares for a House speakership battle, and Congress' latest budget stopgap leaves telehealth regulations relaxed.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The humble peanut got its '15 minutes of fame' when Jimmy Carter was President, America's rural households are becoming more racially diverse but language barriers still exist, farmers brace for another trade war, and coal miners with black lung get federal help.

Methane: New Rules Coming for NM's Invisible Pollutant

play audio
Play

Monday, December 14, 2020   

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Environmentalists in New Mexico celebrated progress made during the Obama administration to stop pollution from oil and gas.

But President Donald Trump gutted those rules, and conservationists say that's why the state needs its own robust safeguards.

Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, is hopeful the incoming Biden administration will restore rules to reduce methane waste and pollution by 65% by 2025 from 2012 levels.

"Right now a quarter of the global warming we're experiencing is caused by methane emissions," Feibelman explained. "And when this stuff is leaked or vented or flared, royalties don't come into the federal government and to the state government."

New Mexico oil and gas regulators will begin meetings next month to codify new regulations on methane and natural-gas emissions and take testimony.

Feibelman encouraged residents to comment on the proposed draft ahead of Jan. 4, or attend the virtual meeting that day.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has said she wants New Mexico to be the nation's leader on rules governing methane and ozone even as state tax revenues generated by the industry traditionally have funded up to 40% of the state budget.

Nathalie Eddy, an oil and gas field advocate attorney for Earthworks in New Mexico, said right now there isn't enough on-the-ground oversight.

"There are about 11 inspectors in New Mexico and there are 57,000-plus sites," Eddy outlined. "So New Mexico regulators are sorely outnumbered and limited in what they can do."

Jon Goldstein, director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund, said more than one million tons of methane are released from oil and gas sites in New Mexico each year, valued at $271 million.

"If the state were capturing that, and putting it to good use, that would be about $43 million a year, every year in revenue, additional revenue, to the state budget," Goldstein argued.

The American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2020" report gave failing grades for ozone pollution to New Mexico's Eddy, Lea and San Juan counties.

Disclosure: Sierra Club, Rio Grande Chapter contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, Public Lands/Wilderness, and Water. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
CalFood is a program of the California Department of Social Services that allows food banks to purchase California-grown and produced foods to augment donations. (Nadianb/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Groups working to fight hunger in California are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to protect funding for the CalFood program in his initial budget …


Environment

play sound

The Department of Energy is taking a close look at the economic and environmental impacts of liquefied natural gas exports, which some experts argue …

Health and Wellness

play sound

As the new year unfolds, rural health providers in North Dakota and other states will continue to have extra latitude in using telehealth technology…


Nationally, electric vehicles represented 8% of the market share in 2023, an increase from 1.5% in 2019. (ARThitecture/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Michigan has poured $1 billion into electric-vehicle battery projects, with another billion pledged, but delays have stalled hiring for most of the 11…

Environment

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient.Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Nebraska News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collabor…

According to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 92% of Americans said they received spam calls in 2023, and 86% received spam texts. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

More than three years after a federal law was passed requiring phone companies to install anti-robocall technology, fewer than half of those …

Social Issues

play sound

A former White House cybersecurity expert is warning of potential cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. And in Illinois, security analysts are …

Health and Wellness

play sound

Holidays are traditionally a slow time for blood donations, but recent events have made the need for people to give blood and plasma in the Magnolia …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021