Sierra Club: Rio Grande Chapter

“Thank you to State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard for all of her work to protect our air, land and water. From preventing the use of fresh water for fracking, to establishing a buffer zone on state lands around Chaco Historic Park, to ensuring competitive royalty rates on high-producing oil lands and effectively saving our state budget last year, the commissioner is a true conservation leader!

“The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter stands in support today of rules to update insurance or bonding rules for oil and gas operators’ extraction of natural resources off our state lands.

“We are particularly concerned about low producing, high polluting wells in New Mexico and the financial viability of the companies that own them. There is now federal legislation to exempt these types of wells from the very rules that protect our communities from their pollution. We want to make sure that companies that threaten to pollute our land are in a position to clean up any messes they make. We want to make sure the final rule prohibits self bonding and includes the cost of cleaning up produced water.” — Camilla Feibelman, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director. New Mexico State Land Office