Local officials oppose state cap and trade petition (10:30 a.m.)
By Stella Davis
Current-Argus Staff Writer
Posted: 08/27/2010 10:57:24 AM MDT

CARLSBAD — Legislators representing Eddy County, local government officials and industry and business leaders have come out in opposition to a cap and trade petition proposed by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board.

The Eddy County Commission in recent months passed two resolutions opposing the petition and, along with a letter, submitted them to the NMED Board. In addition, a representative for the county testified at a recent hearing on the impact it would have in Eddy County if the petition were to be implemented.

On Tuesday, the Carlsbad City Council also came out in opposition, voting to submit a letter to the NMED.

Russell Hardy, representing the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, in his letter to the editor published Friday in the Current-Argus, explained the petition.

"The petition, as currently written, would apply only to rural businesses and industries that produce more than 250,000 tons of CO2 annually and would exempt businesses operating in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and on sovereign Indian Nations," he explained.

"Businesses and industries in our area that would be impacted would include potash mines, Navajo refineries in Artesia and Lovington, Excel Energy generating stations in Lea County, not to mention large-scale manufacturing, mining and utility businesses throughout the rural regions of the state."

Eddy County Commissioner Lewis Derrick, a rancher in north Eddy County, said the Environment Department's petition will hurt the local economy and will have a far-reaching effect if it passes.

"I'm looking at this from the possibility of this petition wrecking our tax base and running off businesses," Derrick said. "It's going to impact not only the oil and gas industry. It will impact farmers, ranchers and the trucking industry. The state should stay out of our business. They need to back off this. It's mind boggling that they would do this to the people of New Mexico."

County Manager Allen Sartin said the wind blows across the border from Arizona and other bordering states, and along with it comes pollutants in the air. He said in order to truly minimize greenhouse gases, similar action would need to be implemented by every state or by federal action for all states to comply.

Rep. Bill Gray, R-Eddy and Otero Counties, sent a letter to the Environmental Improvement Board chastising it for its proposed petition.

"This is another prime example of why New Mexico is considered an anti-business state," he wrote. "These petitions do not include Bernalillo County or the Native American lands. As a side note, the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the state is on Native American lands."
Gray said it is no secret that the Richardson-Denish administration is against the oil and gas industry.

"All one has to do is look at the governor- appointed members, along with the qualifications of the Environmental Improvement Board and the Oil Conservation Commission to see how the boards and commissions are opposed to the oil and gas industry."

Gray, who is familiar with the petroleum refining industry through his years of employment with Navajo Refining in Artesia and surrounding states, said if the petition is successful, it will have a devastating impact on the two refineries in the state.

"Their competition in the Texas Panhandle, El Paso and Big Spring, Texas, will have a significant competitive advantage over the New Mexico refineries," he said.

In his letter to the Environmental Improvement board he further added: "Business that you cost New Mexico will not benefit the atmosphere because if Giant and Navajo were not in business, it would not diminish the use of petroleum products at all. It would simply be taken up by the Texas refineries, which are protected by their government."

Gray, who serves on the New Mexico House Energy Committee, said the committee has heard similar bills in the past three years concerning greenhouse gases and cap and trade proposals.

"All have met with defeat, yet the Environmental Improvement Department continues to push for these types of regulations," he said.

Gray further said the state has significant financial problems but it is wasting financial resources on the Cap and Trade hearings around the state.

What: N.M. Environmental Improvement Board
cap and trade petition hearing and comments.
When: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Pecos River Village Conference Center Carousel House, 711 Muscatel.
The general public and business and industry leaders are urged to attend.

“The greatest value of southern New Mexico’s natural amenities and recreation opportunities lies in their ability to attract and retain people, entrepreneurs, their businesses, and the growing number of retirees who locate for quality of life reasons,” the study authors wrote.
Audubon hopes the report will help persuade lawmakers to fund conservation programs in the state.

An environmental group is seeking federal protections for four mountain top species that it says are being threatened by climate change.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed petitions Tuesday for the white-tailed ptarmigan, a bird found in New Mexico and other Rocky Mountain states; Bicknell's thrush, a songbird found in the northeastern U.S.; the San Bernardino flying squirrel and the 'I'iwi (E-e-vee), a native Hawaiian bird.

The group's endangered species program director, Noah Greenwald, says climate change will have disproportionate impacts on species that live at higher elevations because they will have no where to go.

He says mountain areas are already seeing reduced snowpack and earlier spring runoff.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Environmental Group Seeks Protection for 4 Species

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Albuquerque's international airport has received a $2.4 million federal grant to install solar panels that will provide electrical power at a parking facility.

The money comes from a Federal Aviation Administration project. It will pay for a solar photovoltaic array atop the airport's multilevel vehicle parking facility.

The award was announced in a joint news release from Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall and Rep. Martin Heinrich, all D-N.M.

They say the airport is contributing to regional air quality goals under the Clean Air Act.

Ranching groups and two southern New Mexico counties have sued over a program that is reintroducing endangered Mexican gray wolves into the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, claiming its managers have made substantial changes that require a new environmental impact statement.

"The bottom line is that the individual landowners and small rural communities that are located in places in close proximity to where the wolf release program is being operated are not getting an adequate voice into the process," said Daniel Bryant, a Ruidoso attorney who filed the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish violated the National Environmental Policy Act by altering the rules without the environmental review. It asks a federal judge to stop the program from changing how it operates until it complies with NEPA.

The lawsuit was filed Friday on behalf of Americans for the Preservation of the Western Environment, located in Reserve; the Adobe and Beaverhead ranches in southwest New Mexico; rancher Alan Tackman; the Gila National Forest Livestock Permittees' Association, which represents livestock growers around the wolf reintroduction area; and the Otero and Catron county commissions.

It also names as defendants Fish and Wildlife Southwest Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle and Game and Fish Director Tod Stevenson.

Officials began reintroducing Mexican gray wolves along the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998. The effort has been criticized by ranchers who have lost cattle to wolves and by conservationists who disagree over how the federal government has managed the program.

The wolves have been designated a "nonessential, experimental population," which gives Fish and Wildlife greater flexibility to manage them under the Endangered Species Act and allows permanent removal by capturing or killing a wolf after three confirmed livestock kills in a year.

The lawsuit — which outlines numerous cases of wolves killing or injuring livestock — contends the program is not removing them after three livestock kills. It said no wolves have been permanently removed since December 2007.

Tom Buckley, a spokesman for Fish and Wildlife, had not seen the lawsuit and said he could not comment. Buckley said, however, the so-called three strikes provision was guidance, not a hard and fast rule. Each incident is assessed individually, considering such things as a wolf's genetic value, he said.

State Game and Fish spokesman Marty Frentzel said the agency had not seen the lawsuit and he could not comment. The lawsuit alleges the original environmental process never analyzed keeping "problem habituated wolves and depredating wolf packs in the wild."

Fish and Wildlife "arbitrarily determines which management methods to implement and which to ignore," the lawsuit said.

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said the conservation group will intervene against the lawsuit.

Robinson said Fish and Wildlife has authority to remove wolves from the wild as long as that doesn't impede the species' recovery but it isn't required to remove particular animals.

Biologists had expected a self-sustaining wild population of 100 wolves by now, but the last count at the end of 2009 found 42.

The lawsuit also contends the agencies failed to budget adequate resources to accurately count wolves and deliberately withheld evidence of hybridization and of "the social and economic effects of hybrid wolf-like animals on citizens living within the reintroduction area."

Bryant said whatever judge is assigned the case will decide which federal court in New Mexico will hear it.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: UPDATED: N.M. Ranchers Sue Over Changes in Wolf Program

ALBUQUERQUE - New Mexico advocacy groups are urging Gov. Bill Richardson to support what they call strong, federal regulations that would govern the disposal of toxic leftovers from burning coal for electricity. Thirteen groups have sent the governor a letter asking him to protect New Mexicans from the millions of tons of coal combustion waste that are produced each year by coal-fired power plants in northwestern New Mexico.

Their plea comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops the first-ever national rules for the disposal and management of coal ash as a special waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The agency is considering two options, one of which calls for state or federal permit programs and direct federal enforcement.

Even though Richardson is far removed from the federal decision-making process, the groups believe the opinion of the former U.S. energy secretary carries weight. "On the national stage, our governor is an opinion leader and so the side he comes down on with this is going to be strengthened by his presence," said Dan Lorimier of the Sierra Club's Rio Grande Chapter, one of the groups that signed the letter.
A spokesman for the governor said Monday it wasn't clear whether Richardson had yet received the letter. The debate over coal waste disposal has been brewing since 2008, when a spill at a coal ash pond in Tennessee flooded hundreds of acres, damaged homes and killed fish in nearby rivers. The spill helped raise awareness about the contents of coal combustion waste and has put pressure on the government to take action.

The groups seeking Richardson's support say New Mexico is among the top 10 producers of coal combustion waste. A total of about 3.6 million tons is produced annually by the Four Corners Power Plant, the nearby San Juan Generating Station and the Escalante Generating Station near Prewitt, Lorimier said.

Pat Vincent-Collawn, president and chief executive of PNM Resources, the parent company of utility Public Service Co. of New Mexico, told The Associated Press on Monday that the EPA proposals could impact coal ash disposal costs for the Four Corners and San Juan plants, depending on how the waste is ultimately classified. PNM has a stake in each plant. Vincent-Collawn could not immediately provide a dollar figure but said it would be "pretty significant." Last year, the San Juan plant alone produced 1.7 million tons of coal ash. The waste is used as fill material to reclaim the adjacent San Juan Coal Mine.

The fill operation is the focus of a recent lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club. It alleges the San Juan Coal Co. has dumped more than 40 million tons of coal ash and sludge from the power plant's pollution scrubbers into massive unlined pits at the mine over nearly four decades. Environmentalists contend that pollutants such as arsenic, lead and mercury have leached from the pits into nearby waterways and wells.
Bill Brancard, head of the state's Mining and Minerals Division, said the state has groundwater monitoring stations nearby and plans to start using new instruments to determine if the disposed ash is getting wet and possibly leaching out pollutants.

Brancard acknowledged that some monitors near the edge of the mine and the power plant have recorded elevated levels of pollutants, but the state doesn't believe those levels are related to the coal ash disposal. The state has asked the coal company to install another 10 monitoring wells in an effort to determine the cause of the higher levels. "We're working with the assumption initially that we don't think the ash is causing a problem at the San Juan mine but we definitely need more information," Brancard said.

Peter Morgan, a Denver-based attorney with the Sierra Club, said his group is concerned that the EPA proposals address only landfills and surface impoundments, not mine filling. The agency has indicated it will work with the federal Office of Surface Mining to develop regulations for that practice, but Morgan said there will be increased pressure on the industry to dispose of coal ash in mine pits until a rule is finalized.
Morgan said the Tennessee spill "opened the eyes of the public that these power plants produce this waste and it has to go somewhere and that there are repercussions." While the damage from the Tennessee spill was evident on the landscape, Morgan said the unseen effects of fill operations can be equally grave."It's the slow seeps into the groundwater that we're concerned is happening at facilities around the country," he said.

 A 15-acre array of solar panels will be built next year in Los Alamos, for a project intended to advance ideas on efficiently storing and utilizing solar power in communities. The $27 million "smart grid" system is a collaboration between the county, Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Japanese energy company.

Twenty-five representatives of the Japanese company NEDO, for New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, visited Los Alamos late last month to finalize and unveil the project's details. There are three structural components:

• A two-megawatt photovoltaic facility built over a capped Los Alamos County landfill.
• A 10-megawatt-hour utility scale battery storage system.
• A "smart house" demonstration home built using green construction techniques, with meters and appliances meant to optimize power conservation.

The two-megawatt array will power more than 600 homes, according to Rafael De La Torre, Los Alamos deputy utilities manager for electric distribution. The battery will hold enough energy at one time to fuel 3,300 houses for one hour.

Los Alamos, with about 9,000 homes, powers its grid using a host of sources, including two hydropower generators on the Chama River, a diesel-fired generator, a natural-gas generator and a percentage of power from the coal-fired San Juan generator west of Farmington.

Karl Jonietz, program manager for LANL's applied energy program office, said the power generated by the solar arrays will go into a pool with energy from those other sources. Then the county will have another source to choose from in determining which provider is most economically feasible to tap at any time during the day.

"It's the combination of those sources and uses that makes this test unique," Jonietz said. "Los Alamos County makes the decision. They'll constantly try to get their customers the power they want at the lowest possible price."

Solar power might be the cleanest and best for a neighborhood's electricity needs, but it isn't sustainable if the weather stays overcast for long periods of time, necessitating other sources.

The ultimate goal is to get off coal, Jonietz said, insisting that while taxing carbon might still be a fiery debate in Washington, D.C., power companies will inevitably have to pay for their emissions. That'll cause coal power prices to shoot up, and companies will want to be ready with a plan to provide energy by other means.

De La Torre said Los Alamos customers will see "minimal" change in their electricity bills. The smart house in the project will be plugged into the solar array and have "smart meters," which communicate with appliances and adjust power output accordingly. Devices that don't need to stay running all day or night long would automatically shut off.

County spokesperson Allison Majure said the house will be like a lab for experimenting with the solar array. "We'll do different kinds of demonstrations there," she said. "You could use 100 percent power from the array for something like two weeks, and that would be one experiment. It'll be really cool to power it that way, not only to observe the quality of solar power but also to compare that to other houses."

Makoto Katagiri, NEDO's deputy director of international affairs, said the company has similar experiments running around the world, all with the goal of standardizing smart grid technology. In part, that's because Japan has few natural resources and can't rely on coal plants.

NEDO is contributing $17 million toward the project, and the county is paying $10 million.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Solar Power Coming to Los Alamos

ALBUQUERQUE — Take any highway in any direction out of New Mexico's largest city. Beyond the green "city limit" signs are acres of agricultural fields, sweeping expanses of high desert and, eventually, ponderosa forests and mountain grasslands.

New Mexico is rural, but that doesn't mean its open spaces aren't being th reatened by ranchette subdivisions or other types of development, said Scott Wilber, executive director of the New Mexico Land Conservancy.

"New Mexico is losing something on the order of 50,000 acres of rural land each year to development and New Mexico is now ranked as one of the fastest growing states in the country. Development pressure is off a little bit because of the economy right now, but we all know that's going to pick up again," he said.

Wilber is among the state officials and conservationists who have been trying for the past several years to develop more incentives for property owners to consider conserving their land. They now have one more tool.

The Natural Heritage Conservation Act was approved by legislators and signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson earlier this year to see to it that New Mexico's natural heritage will be protected through conservation and agricultural easements and projects aimed at land and water restoration.

The state last week adopted rules to administer the act.

One problem — a fund that was created to finance the conservation work remains empty.

Despite the prospects of another slim budget year, state officials and conservationists are hopeful legislators can be persuaded to put some money in the conservation fund after seeing the benefits of several proposed easement and restoration projects that will be paid for with a separate $5 million appropriation that was approved during the Legislature's last special session.

"There has to be legislators who are convinced this is a worthwhile program," said Bruce Thompson, who coordinates conservation initiatives for the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Thompson said the projects under consideration for the $5 million are similar to what would be done under the conservation act.

New Mexico is not alone when it comes to underfunded efforts to protect rural areas and to restore watersheds and damaged landscapes. Last summer, a federal blue-ribbon panel reported that the government would need to increase funding tenfold to adequately protect the nation's outdoor heritage, including parks, wildlife refuges and open space.

For the next fiscal year, the Obama administration requested more than $47 million for the federal land and water conservation fund to provide state grants.

With New Mexico's new conservation fund, should it be appropriated, supporters say the state will be able to tap into that funding.

Thompson estimated there's at least $20 million a year of federal funds that go unused because matching funds are not available.

He said having between $10 million and $20 million in New Mexico's fund would be "an incredible step forward." Many states, including New Mexico, offer tax incentives for landowners who conserve their property, but Wilber said that's sometimes not enough. Having a dedicated funding source in addition to tax credits would make it more enticing for a landowner to consider a conservation easement, he said.

Still, he acknowledged that finding money for the fund will be a hurdle. Donations can be made, but the bulk of the fund will have to come from a state appropriation.

Aside from protecting working farms and ranches and recreation spots, Thompson said conservation efforts under the act could help when it comes to protecting wildlife habitat. One of the top threats against species that are listed as threatened or endangered is usually habitat loss.

"That's certainly an important part of the rationale behind this type of work," he said. Wilber said the aim of conserving more of New Mexico is not to block development. "We're trying to promote smart growth," he said. "I think what's more important is to look at what are the key places that need to be preserved around the state and focus on protecting those areas and then make sure that growth occurs where it's appropriate."

Federal officials in May issued a 130-page report that the agency's Southwest regional director Benjamin Tuggle said would "form the foundation" for an updated Mexican wolf recovery plan developed by a team of experts to be convened later this year.

But Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said federal officials have twice failed to complete efforts to update the recovery plan. With a separate listing for the Mexican wolf, developing a new recovery plan will be a legal requirement, rather than a discretionary decision, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Robinson said. A new recovery plan could include key changes to the 12-year-old wolf reintroduction effort that has failed to live up to expectations. That's because of poaching and what critics say are heavy-handed federal management practices aimed at minimizing cattle losses.

A separate listing on the endangered species list would give Fish and Wildlife increased leverage to influence how much cattle grazing the Forest Service allows on national forests, the subject of two lawsuits filed by conservation organizations, said Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians.

Wolves have been removed from the wild or shot for killing cattle, and environmentalists say cattle degrade the habitat of wolf prey, such as elk and beaver. Lobos were virtually exterminated from their traditional territory in the Southwest by the 1920s and in northern Mexico by the early 1980s.

When wolves were first released in the Southwest in 1998, studies projected there would be more than 100 in the recovery area of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico by 2006, but by the end of 2009 the wild population shrank to 42.

The service's announcement of its initial finding that the Mexican wolf "may warrant reclassification" as an endangered subspecies marks the start of a second phase of review leading to a final decision.

The agency has requested that information on the listing from interested parties be submitted on or before Oct. 4. The announcement said the initial finding that a separate listing may be warranted does not necessarily mean one will be granted.

"It's a preliminary decision, but if we hadn't gotten a positive finding, we'd be back to square one," Rosmarino said. "We hope the process in and of itself helps sharpen the focus for the recovery program."

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Mexican Wolf May Get Separate Listing

By Bryant Furlow 8/4/10 9:49 AM New Mexico Independent

The state Environmental Improvement Board will hold hearings on a proposed state cap on greenhouse gas emissions Aug. 16, but the proposal already faces determined opposition from business leaders and Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry.

Opponents of a state emissions cap rallied Tuesday in Albuquerque, The Albuquerque Journal reports. The event was sponsored by the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) and the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

The EIB is considering a state carbon emissions cap proposed by the environmental group New Energy Economy, which aims to cut the state’s carbon emissions to pre-1990 levels by 2020.

“It represents a cost driver that is unique to New Mexico and, therefore, places our state at a disadvantage with other states that surround us,” Berry said at Tuesday’s rally, adding that a cap would ultimately hurt consumers. “I’m afraid (it) creates an incentive for affected industries to leave our state.”

The state Supreme Court ruled June 7 that the EIB could continue to consider an emissions cap, reversing an earlier Lovington District Court decision that had halted the Board’s consideration of New Energy Economy’s 2008 petition.

The state Environment Department has proposed a separate, regional cap-and-trade program. EIB hearings on that proposal will begin in September.

Draft plan could close more than half of all roads open to motorized vehicles

By Staci Matlock | The Santa Fe New Mexican

7/22/2010

Almost half or more of the 5,400 miles of road open to vehicles, four-wheelers and dirt bikes in the Santa Fe National Forest will be closed to motorized travel under a draft plan released by forest managers.

Off-road travel also will be greatly limited. Motorized vehicles currently are allowed to cut across more than half of the forest's 1.6 million acres.

Reducing the number of roads and restricting cross-country travel will protect wildlife, archaeological and water resources from damage caused by motorized vehicles, according to forest officials.

Santa Fe National Forest lists five alternatives in the agency's draft environmental impact statement for motorized travel, though one — leaving everything as is — is not considered viable by officials. The other four alternatives would reduce the miles of road open to vehicles by 45 percent to 66 percent. They vary in the details, like which routes would be closed to trucks, four-wheelers and dirt bikes.

Dan Jirón, the Santa Fe National Forest supervisor, said while motorized vehicle enthusiasts need access to forests, "the total number of road miles on our national forests is too large."

Forest officials know the plan will have far-reaching effects.

"This will be a big change for a lot of people," said Erin Connelly, deputy forest supervisor, soon to be acting forest supervisor.

People might find it harder to reach their favorite recreational spot, and some hikers and mountain bikers may find it harder to reach a trail under the plan.

Some places in the forest would become inaccessible to those with physical challenges or limited time.

The draft plan is a critical step in the long and contentious process to designate the roads, trails and areas where trucks, dirt bikes, four-wheelers and other motorized vehicles will be allowed.

Why limit motorized travel?

Motorized vehicle use has increased in the Santa Fe National Forest in recent years, and so has the detrimental impacts, Connelly said. Those impacts have been documented by forest service soil and water specialists, archaeologists and biologists. According to them:

• Motorized vehicles have damaged headwaters and streams in the national forest by driving near or through them, eroding stream banks.

• Vehicles spread invasive weed seed, a growing ecological problem.

• Roads and trails fragment wildlife habitat and increase the chances small mammals will end up as roadkill.

• Motorized vehicle wheels crush archaeological artifacts and cause erosion that washes artifacts away.

When the forest supervisor chooses a final alternative, Santa Fe National Forest officials will produce a map showing where motorized vehicles are allowed. Forest visitors using motorized vehicles will be responsible for knowing if they are on a designated road or trail. "The map is the main enforcement tool," Jirón said.

The map will be updated and reproduced annually and law enforcement officers from the Forest Service and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish will be able to enforce the plan.

Read the draft plan

The draft plan is available to the public electronically and hard copies also are available at the Santa Fe National Forest main office and all five district offices — Coyote, Cuba, Jemez, Pecos/Las Vegas and Española. All Santa Fe National Forest offices also will have large maps for people to review.

People who want legal standing to appeal a final travel management decision must comment within the 45-day comment period, according to forest officials. For more information, search the Web for "Santa Fe National Forest travel management."

Industry Group's Hire of Ex-BLM Official Assailed
By Susan Montoya Bryan The Albuquerque Journal Associated Press Several environmental groups are crying foul over the recent hire of a former Bureau of Land Management official as the president of New Mexico's leading oil and natural gas industry group.

The groups sent a letter Wednesday to BLM Director Bob Abbey and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking for an investigation into whether the industry improperly influenced Steve Henke during his time as head of the BLM's Farmington field office in northwestern New Mexico. The area is home to the San Juan Basin, one of the nation's largest natural gas fields.

The groups also want an independent ethics review of Henke's hiring by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, and they are requesting that he be restricted in his new position from interacting with BLM offices in New Mexico for two years.

Salazar said in June that he supports a two-year ban on government regulators going to work for the oil and gas industry. He told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that a lifetime ban might be appropriate for some employees, depending on how high they are in the agency.

Henke and BLM officials did not return messages seeking comment about the letter. Deborah Seligman, interim president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said Wednesday that the association doesn't see a conflict of interest with Henke's hiring.

"Whether it's the Bureau of Land Management, whether it's the state of New Mexico, the Oil Conservation Division or the state Land Office, I think what you try to do is find a balance, and I think that's been very true of both federal and state (agencies) within New Mexico.," she said.

Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that signed on to the letter, called Henke's hiring "absurd" and said Salazar and Abbey need to restore the public's trust in the BLM.

"The guy didn't even have a chance to take a breath after he left BLM. It was like just stepping across the street or something. It's unreal," Nichols said.

Henke retired from BLM in May after nine years as district manager of the Farmington office. He will start his new duties with the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association on Aug. 2.

Other groups signing on to the letter include the San Juan Citizens Alliance, Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project, Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Drilling Santa Fe.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Industry Group's Hire of Ex-BLM Official Assailed

Councilor Wants To Cut the Grass
By Dan McKay Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Homeowners' associations could no longer stop members from ripping out their lawns and replacing the turf with xeriscaping under a proposal headed to the City Council next month..

Councilor Isaac Benton says his proposal is designed to help conserve water in Albuquerque's high desert climate. But opponents say the measure, expected to be on the council's Aug. 2 agenda, improperly interferes with the rights of homeowners' associations and could undermine landscaping rules people agreed to when buying their home.

Albuquerque's water conservation ordinance already prohibits covenants that require more than 20 percent of a home's landscape area to be turf. Benton's proposal would make the law even stricter, prohibiting requirements for any "turf grass or other high water-use plants."

"It finally gives everyone, regardless of where they live, the full right to conserve to the maximum extent they choose," said Scott Varner, executive director of the Xeriscape Council of New Mexico. "Right now, that's not the case."

Councilor Trudy Jones, who lives in Tanoan, where there are turf requirements, said it's wrong for City Hall to interfere with the rights of a private corporation, such as a homeowners' association. The ordinance could open the door to other legislation harming the groups, she said.

"All it does is undermine a set of rules and regulations that people agreed to when they bought their home," Jones said. "It's wrong. It's not about water."

She said the ordinance also strips homeowners' groups of the right to require any types of plants, not just grass. Benton disputes that. He says the groups could still require "very lush-looking xeriscape designs," just not turf. But the proposal isn't clear. It says a property holders' association cannot enforce a rule that "requires turf grass or other high water-use plants, or in any manner restricts limits or increases the cost of xeriscaping, the installation or use of efficient irrigation systems or water conservation by a property holder."

The city wouldn't get involved in enforcing the ordinance, Benton said. Instead, homeowners could use the ordinance to file a lawsuit if a homeowners' group opposed their right to xeriscape, he said.

Albuquerque launched its conservation program in the mid-1990s after studies showed the underground water supply is much more limited than previously thought. The state also mandates that the local water utility meet certain conservation goals in order to divert its share of river water.

Even with the use of river water, some experts say Albuquerque is continuing to use water at an unsustainable rate. "They key reason that I sponsored this was that our water resources are clearly so fragile," Benton said.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: Councilor Wants To Cut the Grass

Report Says Warmer Climate Could Parch Counties
Albuquerque Journal Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. — A new report says more than 1,000 counties across the United States could face potential water shortages by mid-century as warmer temperatures deplete supplies and agricultural and consumer demand for water rises.

The report, released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, says some regions including the Northeast could see a boost to water supplies as climate change shifts weather patterns.

But for much of the rest of the country, the group paints a sobering picture of warm temperatures further taxing aquifers already stressed by heavy use.

The report did not factor in future improvements to water supply systems. Fourteen states were highlighted as being most at risk — Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Report Says Warmer Climate Could Parch Counties

HARRISBURG, Pa. — So vast is the wealth of natural gas locked into dense rock deep beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio that some geologists estimate it's enough to supply the entire East Coast for 50 years.

But freeing it requires a powerful drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," using millions of gallons of water brewed with toxic chemicals, that some fear could pollute water above and below ground and deplete aquifers.

As gas drillers swarm to this lucrative Marcellus Shale region and blast into other shale reserves around the country, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking a new look at the controversial fracking technique, currently exempt from federal regulation. The $1.9 million study comes as the nation reels from the Deepwater Horizon environmental and economic disaster playing out in the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil and gas industry steadfastly defends the process as having been proven safe over many years as well as necessary to keep the nation on a path to energy independence.

Studies have "consistently shown that the risks are managed, it's safe, it's a technology that's essential ... it's also a technology that's well-regulated," said Lee Fuller, director of the industry coalition Energy In Depth.

"A fair study," Fuller added, "will show that the procedures that are there now are highly effective and do not need to be altered — the federal government does not need to be there."

But because of the oil spill, conservation groups say the drilling industry has lost it credibility and the rapid expansion of shale drilling needs to be scrutinized.

"People no longer trust the oil and gas industry to say, 'Trust us, we're not cutting corners,' " said Cathy Carlson, a policy adviser for Earthworks, which supports federal regulation and a moratorium on fracking in the Marcellus Shale.

Just six years ago, an EPA study declared the fracking process posed "little or no threat to underground sources of drinking water" and with that blessing, Congress a year later exempted hydraulic fracturing from federal regulation.

Now the agency, prodded by Congress even before the Gulf disaster and stung by criticism that its 2004 study was scientifically flawed and maybe politically tainted, will bring the issues to the heart of the land lease rush in the Marcellus Shale: Canonsburg, Pa., on Thursday and Binghamton, N.Y., on Aug. 12.

EPA hearings earlier this month in Fort Worth, Texas, and Denver focused on issues including drilling in the Barnett Shale of Texas, and in Colorado and Wyoming, which have experienced similar natural gas booms. Natural gas is also being recovered from the Haynesville Shale in north Louisiana, the Fayetteville Shale in northern Arkansas and Woodford Shale in southern Oklahoma.

In Texas, where drillers have sunk more than 13,000 wells into the Barnett Shale in the past decade, fear of the cancer-causing chemical benzene in the air above gas fields from processing plants and equipment has spurred tests by environmental regulators and criticism of the state's safeguards. In Colorado, numerous residents contend gas drilling has spoiled their water wells.

Advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology in the late 1990s significantly increased the yield and economic viability of tapping shale gas wells and led to the current natural gas boom, starting in Texas with the Barnett Shale. Fracking is now considered the key to unlocking huge, untapped natural gas reserves across the United States at a time when natural gas is emerging as a greener energy alternative to coal or oil.

The Marcellus Shale is 10 times the size of the Barnett, spanning 50,000 square miles compared with the 5,000-square-mile Barnett. It is also three times thicker than the Barnett at up to 900 feet and is estimated to have a potential yield of 10 times as much gas (500 trillion cubic feet versus 50 trillion cubic feet).

At stake in the debate over how best to manage and regulate this enormous new natural resource is not just the safety of water supplies but also thousands of jobs, profits for the gas drilling and delivery industry and a bonanza of royalties for landowners.

"We've got to get it right," said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., a sponsor of the so-called FRAC Act, which would repeal the 2005 exemption and require regulation of fracking by the EPA under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

"We allowed coal over many, many decades to be an industry that was so unregulated that it was allowed to do virtually whatever it wanted, and now we have numerous environmentally adverse impacts," he said.

Though the drilling rush into Pennsylvania is barely two years old, more than 3,500 permits have been issued and about 1,500 wells drilled, with thousands more expected. Environmental problems are already bubbling up: methane leaks contaminating private water wells, major spillage of diesel and fracking chemicals above ground, and fish kill in a creek.

A well blowout in north-central Pennsylvania last month spewed natural gas and toxic fracking water out of control for 16 hours. State regulators found EOG Resources Inc. of Houston had failed to install a proper blowout prevention system — taking cost shortcuts. The state fined EOG Resources and a contractor more than $400,000.

A wary New York state has had a virtual moratorium on drilling permits for the Marcellus Shale region for two years while it completes an environmental review.

Fear of water pollution is so high that a sweet spot of the Marcellus Shale — the Delaware River watershed in southern New York and northeastern Pennsylvania that provides drinking water for 17 million people from Philadelphia to New York City — is virtually off-limits to drilling for now.

The industry says there is no evidence that fracking chemicals — some of them suspected human carcinogens — contaminate drinking water, wells or aquifers once blasted deep underground.

EPA summarized numerous reports of "water quality incidents" in residential wells, homes, or streams in Alabama, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming but said there was inconclusive evidence linking the incidents to fracking.

Hydraulic fracturing, first used commercially in 1949 by petroleum services giant Halliburton Co. of Houston, was developed to eke gas and oil from impermeable rock. Water mixed with chemicals and sand is injected at high pressure to fracture shale, the sand holding fractures open so gas can flow up the well.

Each frack job uses an average of 4 million gallons of water, delivered to a well site by hundreds of tanker trucks. Some of the "produced" wastewater remains in the well — estimates range from 20 percent to 90 percent. What comes back up the well — briny, chemical-laden and possibly radioactive from exposure to naturally existing radon underground — is usually stored in open pits until it's trucked to treatment plants or underground injection wells.

In the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Dimock, state regulators have repeatedly penalized Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. for contaminating the drinking water wells of 14 homes with leaking methane and for numerous spills of diesel and chemical drilling additives, including one that contaminated a wetland and killed fish.

Even as Pennsylvania officials work to improve their regulation of drilling, the state's environmental protection secretary does not want to cede authority.

"I'm not ready to turn Pennsylvania's resources over to the federal government," said John Hanger. "Right now, Pennsylvania has just about the very best drilling oversight in the country and we continue to keep working at it every day."

Hanger is quick to criticize the regulatory debacle of the federal Minerals Management Service and its cozy relationship with oil and gas corporations before the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20.

"That agency was captured by the drilling industry," he said. The industry says it believes state oversight is sufficient and worries the new EPA study will lead to new and costly safety and environmental rules that would rob them of decades of profits.

In West Virginia, however, state officials concede they're overwhelmed trying to regulate the Marcellus juggernaut that has added hundreds of Marcellus wells to tens of thousands of traditional, shallow gas wells.

If passed, the FRAC Act would remove what's widely known as the "Halliburton loophole" — which exempted fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act when the 2005 energy bill was passed.

The EPA, in a statement to The Associated Press, did not criticize its previous study. But given the rapid expansion of the industry and "serious concerns" about the impact of hydraulic fracturing, the agency said it concluded it was necessary to conduct a peer-reviewed study that draws upon best available science, independent experts and the public.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: UPDATED: EPA Takes New Look at Gas Drilling, Water Issues

In the shade of a big cottonwood's canopy near the river, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar talked about the quest "to create a 21st-century conservation agenda for this country."

"How do we put that together so we protect these special places like the Rio Grande, working farms and ranches, great urban parks, and connect the young people to the outdoors?" Salazar asked.

Salazar and Harris Sherman, under secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were among the federal officials who visited Albuquerque on Saturday.

It was the latest stop in a series of nationwide "listening sessions" taking place as part of President Obama's "America's Great Outdoors Initiative," which is aimed at setting a conservation agenda for the country and "reconnecting Americans with the outdoors."

The suggestions gleaned from the public will be distilled into a report due in November. "That (report) will be the foundation for changing certain federal policies (and determining) how we spend our money...," Sherman said.

While the public at large had the chance to weigh in during the afternoon, the morning was set aside for young people. About 150 participants attended the youth session and were asked by Salazar what recommendation they would take to President Obama on how to get youth involved in the conservation effort of the country.

"Really, I think it's education," said Travis McKenzie, 23, whose community involvement includes being gardening coordinator for the SouthWest Organizing Project. "We need more service-learning-based curriculum, where people can learn about nature."

Earlier in the session, McKenzie mentioned that some urban residents have challenges "even getting into nature." In the end, McKenzie talked about shoring up funding for programs, organizations and school efforts that already exist and allow young people to learn about nature.

East Mountains resident Akilah Sanders-Reed, 16, said, "I think one of the biggest problems ... is the motivation and encouragement for youth to be outdoors just isn't there, especially in our society where there's more emphasis on material possessions, appearance," among other things.

She talked about a community garden in a school setting as one way to engage youth.

Jessica Decker, a Stamford, Texas, resident in New Mexico for the summer, said one important aspect of supporting the outdoors comes in supporting farmers and ranchers.

"We need to maintain those multiple-use lands that farmers and ranchers are able to produce on and support the farmers and ranchers because they, in turn, support the wildlife and the environment ...," she said.

Salazar said he sometimes hears that now is not a good time for a conservation initiative; that there are too many other issues to focus on: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the gulf oil spill and its aftermath.

"And I remind people that it was during the Civil War that Abraham Lincoln set aside the lands for Yosemite. It was during the ravages of the Great Depression and the Dustbowl which led to Franklin Roosevelt's creation of much of what we know today as the National Wildlife Refuge system," Salazar said. "So I think it's in times of crisis like this that we do call out for a new agenda for conservation."
Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: Youths Voice Ideas About Conservation http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/18231657metro07-18-10.htm#ixzz0uA2hCX9U

With the fate of a scaled-back cap on greenhouse gas emissions uncertain, environmental groups are scrambling to find a way to maintain a bill that would still achieve substantial cuts in global warming pollution. Now they have refocused their attention on strengthening a renewable energy standard, which would require a percentage of the country’s electricity to come from renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Environmental groups have participated in a series of meetings in recent weeks to press Senate staff to strengthen the renewable energy standard (RES) included in the energy bill passed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s (D-N.M.) Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year. The RES in the bill would require that 15 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources, a standard that most environmentalists think is far too weak.

Environmental advocates have long seen an RES as essential to jump-starting the renewable energy sector. While an RES would result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, environmentalists say a comprehensive energy and climate bill, with a cap on carbon, is required to reduce emissions enough to stave off catastrophic climate change. “An RES was never intended to be a carbon reduction measure,” said Marchant Wentworth, deputy legislative director at the Union for Concerned Scientists. “Its intent was always to increase renewable energy [capacity].”

So as they advocate a stronger RES, environmental groups continue to push for a utility-sector cap on emissions, holding a series of meetings in recent days and weeks with representatives of key electric utilities. It remains to be seen whether environmental and utility groups can find middle ground on the proposal, a necessary step, sources on and off the Hill say, to ensure passage of such a provision. The utilities have pushed for an exemption from Environmental Protection Agency regulation in exchange for supporting a carbon cap on their companies — a compromise environmental groups are unlikely to accept. If a deal on a cap proves impossible, environmental groups see an RES as the next best thing.

Environmentalists are lobbying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include an RES that would require 25 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025 in the energy bill he is expected to bring to the floor the week of July 26. A coalition of environmental groups — including the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council — sent a letter to Reid Wednesday calling for a 10 percent RES by 2013 and a 25 percent RES by 2025.

“We commend the Energy & Natural Resources Committee for including a national renewable electricity standard in the American Clean Energy Leadership Act,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, the provision as drafted would fail to drive a significant expansion of renewable energy. Studies show that the amount of renewable energy development resulting from the renewable energy requirement in ACELA could be lower than expected growth in development as a result of existing state policies and federal incentives.”

If the Reid bill includes Bingman’s proposal, a number of lawmakers who have called for a stronger RES will likely seek to offer amendments to the bill. But some sources say that given the tight time frame before the August recess, Reid could restrict amendments to the legislation, leaving lawmakers with little time to strengthen an RES on the floor. Reid’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Wentworth, of the Union for Concerned Scientists, says Bingaman and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) are planning to offer an amendment on the floor that would raise the RES to 20 percent. While that’s below the target that UCS and other environmental groups are calling for, Marchant acknowledges that a 25 percent RES may not be able to get 60 votes in the Senate.

Bill Wicker, Bingaman’s spokesperson, said Thursday that the senator would like to see the RES “strengthened and improved” in the final version of the bill. Wicker added that he does not believe the energy bill being cobbled together by Reid, based on a number of energy and climate proposals, has been written yet.

Once that bill is made available, “then we’ll all then know what the RES figure is going to be,” Wicker said, adding that Bingaman would support the highest RES that can gain enough support for passage. Dorgan’s spokesperson, Barry Piatt, confirms that the senator is planning to offer an RES amendment.

And environmentalists are touting a proposal introduced last year by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) that would implement a 25 percent RES. Udall’s spokesperson confirmed that the senator is trying to get the 25 percent RES included in Reid’s legislative package. With the potential for protracted floor debate on the bill, lawmakers are hoping to get a stronger RES in the bill before it hits the floor.

Meanwhile, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) introduced a bill this week that also includes a 25 percent RES. But environmentalists are hesitant to support the bill because it includes an extension of tax credits for ethanol and incentives for biofuels, though one environmentalist source acknowledges that such provisions could help gain Republican support for the proposal.

An aide in Klobuchar’s office says the goal is to include parts of the bill in the package Reid’s staff is writing or as an amendment on the floor. The aide says Klobuchar is meeting with a number of senators to try to build support for the legislation, but there are currently no other co-sponsors.

But Klobuchar and Johnson have the support of a number of powerful industry trade associations, including the American Wind Energy Association, the wind industry’s trade group, and the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents the ethanol industry. A source with Growth Energy, another ethanol trade group that has endorsed the proposal, says a utility-only bill is “the death knell; it’s not going to go anywhere.”

A stronger RES allows environmentalists to claim victory on a climate proposal. Democrats “want to be able to say to the environmental community, ‘We didn’t get everything, but we got something through,’” the ethanol industry source says. “They can come out at the end of the day and say it’s jobs, it’s some climate, but not the type of climate that will make the Republicans choke.” While environmentalists aren’t sold on the Klobuchar-Johnson bill, the ethanol industry source says that incentives for ethanol could win support from key Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

The other Senators who introduced the bill with Udall are Sens. Tom Carper, D-Dela., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

In order to become independent of foreign oil, the legislation aims to cut oil consumption nationwide by more than 8 billion barrels per day by 2030.

“Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic, environmental and national security. I am proud to join with Senators Merkley and Carper to introduce legislation that would help turn this global threat into a national opportunity,” Udall said in a press release announcing the legislation. “With our bill, we will take control of our energy future from special interests and foreign powers through the development of clean energy resources, by increasing energy efficiency, and by creating the jobs of the future here in the United States.”

The Oil Independence for a Stronger America Act includes provisions “to ramp up production and use of electric vehicles, increase travel options and improve infrastructure, develop alternative transportation fuels and reduce the use of oil to heat buildings” according to the release.

Udall, in the press conference announcing the introduction of the legislation, mentioned work by Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque that is working with automakers like General Motors “to develop next generation engine technology that will burn 50 percent for efficiently.”

Udall said that “this is a bill that OPEC doesn’t like but the United States Senate should like.”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—People in the Albuquerque area are using too much water, jeopardizing water use goals. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority says customers used 4.23 billion gallons of water in June. That's 480 million gallons more than targeted.

Utility officials say the community is 226 million gallons over the conservation target for the year to date. Residents have used 52 million gallons more than targeted for this point in July.

The water utility's conservation officer, Katherine Yuhas, says hot, dry weather is leading people to water more than they should.

She also says the Albuquerque area has received about an inch less rain than at this point in an average year.

Dennis Meadows probably doesn't mean to be a downer at a cocktail party. But the researcher, who has spent decades studying Earth's capacity to endure human population growth and extractive economies, says we've run out of time to turn around our global version of the Titanic.

Call him a realist. "We're not talking about problems our grandchildren will have to deal with. We're talking problems we'll deal with in the next three to five years," said Meadows, professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire and winner of the 2009 prize for original and outstanding achievements from the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan.

Meadows thinks humans can adapt to what is around the corner, such as higher fuel costs and warmer weather.

Meadows will discuss the limits to growth and "Achieving the Best Possible Future," tonight at the James A. Little Theater. It is one of two back-to-back free lectures at the theater sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute, a place where scientists from varied disciplines work on solutions to complex problems such as climate change.

Meadows will discuss ways communities and nations can begin adjusting to climate change, peak oil, less water and other realities. "We have been progressively putting things on the market that used to be taken care of by communities, such as caring for seniors," Meadows said. "People need to deliberately recreate communities."

Rebuilding local food supplies, living within an area's existing water resources and producing energy locally from renewable sources are all ways communities can prepare for what's ahead, he said. New Mexico is making progress on some of those fronts, such as promoting renewable energy. "New Mexico is moving in the right direction. It isn't moving at the right speed," said Meadows, who was preparing to lecture a group of 30 scientists and policymakers from around the country at a two-week Sustainability School at the Santa Fe Institute.

Meanwhile, New Mexico is mining its groundwater and importing water to make up the difference. "We can't resolve our problems by importing resources from elsewhere," he said.

Meadows and colleagues from the Club of Rome, a think tank focused on global challenges, produced a report in 1972 called "The Limits of Growth." Their research concluded humans and their economies would outstrip the earth's resources if growth wasn't limited.

They updated the report in 2004 and found that on a planet-wide scale, humans hadn't made much progress on saving the Earth's resources. "We've seen so much population growth and industrial growth that we're worse off then we were 20 years ago," Meadows said.

He said people are more aware now than they once were that humans can change the Earth, irrevocably. And there are solutions. "We know how to decrease carbon dioxide emission. We know how to stop overharvesting fish and overpumping groundwater," he said. "But there will always be those who fight those solutions for short-term economic gains or because of ego."

Now, it is too late to stop climate change, he believes. "Even if you lower CO2 emission to zero, we're still going to see climate change from existing emissions for hundreds of years."

Scientists predict climate change means shorter winters, higher temperatures and less water in the Southwest. So adapting to the change means growing crops that can endure higher heat and with less water, for example, Meadows said.

For people in general, it means learning to live well on less, he said — less energy, less water, less stuff.
Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.
read more about The Club of Rome

IF YOU GO
What: Santa Fe Institute free public lectures
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dennis Meadows on "The Club of Rome and Limits to Growth: Achieving the Best Possible Future." At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Mahzarin Banaji, professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University, discusses "Mind Bugs: The Science of Ordinary Bias."
Where: James A. Little Theater, Santa Fe

Old computer equipment taking up room in your home?

Computers and most computer equipment, telephones, hand-held electronic devices and audio equipment can be discarded for free at the city's annual electronic-waste recycling drop-off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 21 at 1142 Siler Road.

Televisions will be accepted for $10 and old-style "cathode ray tube" computer monitors will be accepted for $5, according to a news release from the city of Santa Fe, Keep Santa Fe Beautiful and Albuquerque Recycling Inc., which takes some of the recycling materials collected in Santa Fe.

Items accepted without charge include computers, servers, laptops and components such as keyboards, mice, wires, cables, flat-screen monitors, printers and scanners, fax machines, all types of phones including cellular phones, Palm Pilots and other personal digital assistants, television satellite equipment, video-cassette recorders and compact-disc players, stereo equipment, computer and TV game assemblies, cameras and video cameras.

Lead acid batteries, computer backup batteries and UPS (uninterruptible power supply) batteries will be accepted, but not alkaline batteries of any size. Also not accepted during the drop-off will be coffee makers, hair dryers, bread machines, light bulbs of any kind, cardboard or paper, appliances such as microwave ovens and household hazardous waste.

According to the news release, information on hard drives will be wiped out by an "overwrite process," and if the hard drive is nonworking and cannot be wiped, it will be crushed.

For more information, call 955-2215 or e-mail Sfbeautiful@santafenm.gov.

SANTA FE — The New Mexico State Forestry Division will kick off its fall seedling distribution sale on Tuesday.

More than 110,000 seedlings will be available for public purchase through the Fall 2010 Conservation Seedling Program. Seedlings are available to landowners who have at least one acre in New Mexico and who agree to use the trees for conservation purposes, such as erosion control, wildlife habitat, reforestation or windbreak establishment. Tree species include Arizona cypress, blue spruce, ponderosa pine and others. State Forester Butch Blazer says planting trees in the fall will help them prepare for growth in the warmer months.

Sales begin Tuesday at the agency's website and by mail-in order form. The seedlings will be distributed starting in September.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: New Mexico To Launch Fall Seed Sale

The comparative study of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana by Montana based Headwater Economics defines the green economy as “all of those enterprises and individuals who work to provide products, services, and knowledge associated with: clean energy production, energy efficiency, natural resource conservation, and efforts to curb and clean-up environmental pollution.”

In New Mexico, the report states, green jobs grew by 62 percent, compared to 13 percent in overall total number of jobs. The clean energy sector accounts for 25 percent of the green economy in New Mexico, and jobs in that sector grew by 152 percent. Jobs in the energy efficiency sector grew by 241 percent. The state led all states in the study for the rate at which its renewable energy production sector grew, at 200 percent.

For the five-state region overall, total job growth was 19 percent, while green jobs grew by 30 percent. Nationally, over the same time period, overall job growth was 10 percent, while green jobs grew by 18 percent.

The report attributes the green job growth in New Mexico to proactive leadership by state officials, world-class research facilities, and successful marketing of the state as “solar valley,” putting it at the heart of the North American solar industry.