ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Environmental Protection Agency got some push-back from folks in New Mexico and other states at a hearing in the nation's capital on Monday.

The agency wants to delay a new methane-emission rule for the oil and gas industry on federal land - although methane leaked at well sites is linked to climate change and considered a risk to public health. New Mexico and California have already sued the EPA to keep the rule in place.

Alexandra Merlino with the New Mexico chapter of the group Moms Clean Air Force spoke at the EPA hearing. She says energy producers need to be held accountable to update their equipment and stop methane leaks.

"If we don't hold them accountable, they're not going to do it," she said. "We're just giving them a pass to pollute."

The Trump administration says holding off on enforcement of the new rule for two years would save businesses $235 million.

Satellite data shows the Four Corners area of northwest New Mexico has the country's biggest concentration of methane, as home to the nation's largest collection of storage tanks, pipelines and processing plants.

Colorado is also affected by the methane cloud in the Four Corners region, but it adopted tougher air pollution rules for the oil and gas industry in 2016, and became the first state in the nation to cover methane.

Merlino says New Mexico is at the mercy of the federal government's rules.

"In New Mexico, we don't have state regulations," she notes. "We depend on the EPA as our backstop."

The new emissions rule was delayed by the U.S. Interior Department after opposition from energy companies and several states, including Wyoming - but last week, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled the EPA can't suspend the rule entirely. It is slated to take effect in January 2018.


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The Biden administration has proposed a rule to limit methane flaring from oil and gas development on public lands.

The rule would impose royalty payments for excessive flaring, and the Bureau of Land Management estimates it would generate nearly $40 million a year.

Melissa Hornbein, a senior attorney based in Montana with the Western Environmental Law Center, said she's encouraged by some aspects of the proposal, but believes an outright ban would be more effective, as long as there are no safety concerns in a given situation.

"There's really no need for it," she said, "and instituting a pay-to-play system is not likely to be effective in terms of really reducing the waste of associated gas through venting and flaring."

Hornbein said it's important that the BLM has recognized its authority to regulate such oil and gas waste as methane, and her organization would like to see the agency go further to create a consistent and durable rule that will last into the next administration.

A spokesperson for the Independent Petroleum Association of America said the regulations should be handled by the Environmental Protection Agency, because the BLM doesn't have enough expertise on this issue.

The nation is beefing up its power grids for the transition to fueling everything from cars to home cooling systems with electricity, and addressing hazards along the way.

Engineers believe they are ready to implement a common-sense solution for stopping the sparks from power lines, which have led to destructive wildfires, including the one that burned down the entire town of Paradise, California.

Paul Chinowsky, director of the climate consulting firm Resilient Analytics, said burying distribution lines underground would essentially eliminate the risk of sparking wildfires.

"Most people would agree that other than places where you have very high flood danger, that's a great option," Chinowsky argued. "Why aren't we doing it when other countries are? Bottom line: cost. Who's going to pay for it?"

Chinowsky called President Joe Biden's infrastructure legislation a good start, but with the price of undergrounding power lines at $4 million per mile or more, much more will be needed to reconfigure power distribution, especially across vast expanses in Colorado and other Western states.

Chinowsky pointed to successful federal efforts which brought electricity to rural America for the first time in the 1930s as one potential way forward.

He pointed out the cost of damage from wildfires -- lost homes and other structures, the health impacts of dangerous air quality and the long term impacts on watersheds -- far outweighs any upfront investment to move power lines underground.

"The Marshall Fire, that was a huge event. It's not going to be the last one," Chinowsky noted. "There is no question that the investment long term will be less than the amount we would pay in rebuilding after disaster events."

According to state officials, Colorado's core fire seasons are 78 days longer on average than they were in the 1970s, a situation made more dire by rising temperatures, prolonged drought and blasting winds.

Chinowski added what gets lost in hyperpartisan debates around infrastructure investments is the fact power lines can spark wildfires in any neighborhood, regardless of political affiliation.

"We lose the focus that this is ultimately a public-safety issue, and we're talking about trying to save peoples' lives," Chinowski contended. "We need to focus on that again."


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The Arizona Corporation Commission has unanimously voted development of the massive SunZia Transmission Wind Project can continue.

The commission approved amendments to SunZia's Certificate of Environmental Compatibility, which completes the Arizona permitting process for the 3,000 megawatt wind project.

Adam Stafford, managing senior staff attorney for Western Resource Advocates, said they commend the decision to move forward with the project. Based in central New Mexico, it will provide power to an estimated 2.5 million customers in states Stafford pointed out are already feeling the impacts of climate change.

"Decarbonization needs to happen, and the science is telling us that we are facing a rapidly closing window to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees," Stafford asserted. "These are the kinds of steps that we need to be taking - adding new clean energy, adding new transmission lines, increase regionalization to try and minimize cost."

This summer, Pattern Energy acquired the SunZia project from Southwestern Power Group. Pattern Energy will use the 550-mile long SunZia Transmission line to deliver power from New Mexico to Arizona. Southwestern Power plans to develop a second, parallel transmission line, called El Rio Sol.

Stafford said together, they will transmit power from the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere.

According to U.S. Census data, Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S.

Stafford emphasized while Arizona has focused mostly on solar energy, which is part of the clean-energy puzzle, other forms should not be overlooked. According to Western Resource Advocates, the SunZia line will avoid nearly 17 million metric tons of annual CO2 emissions.

"At the hearing, they showed the generation profile of the wind, and it's complementary to the profile of solar generation in Arizona," Stafford stressed. "It comes in, in the evenings, and blows at nighttime when the sun's not shining."

Pattern Energy is expected to begin operations in 2025. Southwestern Power is expected to bring El Rio Sol online by 2031. The projects are privately funded, and are estimated to bring $1 billion in direct economic benefits to governments and communities in Arizona and New Mexico.