Oil and gas facilities deemed “super emitters” of methane could face more stringent state rules if a pair of proposed regulations take effect.

The New Mexico Environment Department on July 16 proposed new rules intended to reduce methane emissions in the state’s two oilfields: the southeast Permian Basin and northwest San Juan Basin.

Notably, the proposal would establish a “Super Emitter Program” that would define such a facility as one emitting at least 50 kilograms per hour in a single event. The proposal also includes language allowing the use of third-party data taken from satellite readings or other sources outside of state agencies in identifying such emissions.

Third parties would be certified by the state of New Mexico, and when a plume is discovered, the environment department would notify the owner of the site and require the company to conduct an investigation and report on steps taken to mitigate the emissions.

The proposed regulations also include a requirement that by 2031 all oilfield facilities, including those currently in operation, must be outfitted with zero-emission electric pneumatic pumps rather than more emission-prone gas-driven pumps.

The environment department collected feedback from the public and other stakeholders, including oil and gas and environmental groups, during a public comment period that ended July 29.

The agency intends to propose the rules to its governing body, the Environmental Improvement Board, “in the next couple of weeks” said Environmental Protection Division Director Michelle Miano.

The board will hold its own public meetings and vote on approving or rejecting the rules.

‘One step further’

The proposal follows rules enacted in 2022 to address ground-level ozone, or “smog,” produced when volatile organic compounds are emitted by oilfield sites and interact with sunlight. The regulations increased reporting requirements for oil and gas operators on their emissions of the compounds – a group of air-polluting chemicals identified by the state as ozone “precursors.”

The latest proposal is part of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s broader agenda – implemented in 2019 via an executive order as she first took office – to cut air pollution emissions throughout New Mexico with a goal of 100% “carbon-free” energy production by 2045.

Miano said the methane proposal “is one step further along the path” of achieving the governor’s goals and would also help prevent gas from being released into the air – keeping more of it “in the pipe” so it can be processed at a refinery or other facility or sold to downstream customers.

“Not only is it a potent greenhouse gas but a valuable product. We want companies not to waste it,” she said.

But Missi Currier, president of trade group the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, questioned the timing of new rulemaking in the final months of the Lujan Grisham administration and so soon after the state’s previous round of air quality regulations.

The governor is term-limited and will leave office at the end of 2026 after serving two four-year terms.

Currier also criticized what she characterized as limited public involvement, noting that the state’s previous ozone rules were devised after a multi-year rulemaking process involving extensive discussion and multiple public hearings.

“We are concerned that the current compressed timeline will not allow enough time for robust stakeholder input and collaboration in developing and completing the rulemaking process,” Currier said.

The proposed rules, she said, create “inconsistencies with current state and federal regulatory frameworks and could negatively impact business across the state.”

Oil and gas companies, Currier said, are already taking steps to limit air pollution and currently “invest billions of dollars” in technologies to do so.

“The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association supports practical, science-based measures that reduce methane emissions while maintaining safe, reliable, and affordable energy production,” Currier said.

Although many oil and gas operators do monitor and mitigate such gas leaks, Miano said, the new rules are needed to create “a level playing field” by requiring all companies to follow the same standards.

“We know that there are already investments coming into the Permian for facilities, so if you are in compliance there should not be a huge surprise because you’re already doing the work,” she said. “If you’re not, we want to make sure that you are.”

The rules drew support from environmental groups arguing they were a needed step in reducing the impacts of New Mexico’s booming oil and gas industry centered in the southeast and to counteract anti-regulatory measures enacted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

“New Mexico is standing against the Trump administration’s reckless attack on our health and standing up for state climate action,” said Nini Gu of the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Defense Fund, which sued the Environmental Protection Agency in June in response to the proposed cancellation of methane standards enacted under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden. The organization also opposed a July 7 EPA plan allowing state agencies to shorten public comment periods when considering permits for facilities releasing carbon emissions.

“By advancing this new methane rule,” Gu said, “Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham builds on New Mexico’s methane leadership and reinforces her legacy as a national leader in cutting oil and gas methane waste and pollution.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

Oil and gas facilities deemed “super emitters” of methane could face more stringent state rules if a pair of proposed regulations take effect.

The New Mexico Environment Department on July 16 proposed new rules intended to reduce methane emissions in the state’s two oilfields: the southeast Permian Basin and northwest San Juan Basin.

Notably, the proposal would establish a “Super Emitter Program” that would define such a facility as one emitting at least 50 kilograms per hour in a single event. The proposal also includes language allowing the use of third-party data taken from satellite readings or other sources outside of state agencies in identifying such emissions.

Third parties would be certified by the state of New Mexico, and when a plume is discovered, the environment department would notify the owner of the site and require the company to conduct an investigation and report on steps taken to mitigate the emissions.

The proposed regulations also include a requirement that by 2031 all oilfield facilities, including those currently in operation, must be outfitted with zero-emission electric pneumatic pumps rather than more emission-prone gas-driven pumps.

The environment department collected feedback from the public and other stakeholders, including oil and gas and environmental groups, during a public comment period that ended July 29.

The agency intends to propose the rules to its governing body, the Environmental Improvement Board, “in the next couple of weeks” said Environmental Protection Division Director Michelle Miano.

The board will hold its own public meetings and vote on approving or rejecting the rules.

‘One step further’

The proposal follows rules enacted in 2022 to address ground-level ozone, or “smog,” produced when volatile organic compounds are emitted by oilfield sites and interact with sunlight. The regulations increased reporting requirements for oil and gas operators on their emissions of the compounds – a group of air-polluting chemicals identified by the state as ozone “precursors.”

The latest proposal is part of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s broader agenda – implemented in 2019 via an executive order as she first took office – to cut air pollution emissions throughout New Mexico with a goal of 100% “carbon-free” energy production by 2045.

Miano said the methane proposal “is one step further along the path” of achieving the governor’s goals and would also help prevent gas from being released into the air – keeping more of it “in the pipe” so it can be processed at a refinery or other facility or sold to downstream customers.

“Not only is it a potent greenhouse gas but a valuable product. We want companies not to waste it,” she said.

But Missi Currier, president of trade group the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, questioned the timing of new rulemaking in the final months of the Lujan Grisham administration and so soon after the state’s previous round of air quality regulations.

The governor is term-limited and will leave office at the end of 2026 after serving two four-year terms.

Currier also criticized what she characterized as limited public involvement, noting that the state’s previous ozone rules were devised after a multi-year rulemaking process involving extensive discussion and multiple public hearings.

“We are concerned that the current compressed timeline will not allow enough time for robust stakeholder input and collaboration in developing and completing the rulemaking process,” Currier said.

The proposed rules, she said, create “inconsistencies with current state and federal regulatory frameworks and could negatively impact business across the state.”

Oil and gas companies, Currier said, are already taking steps to limit air pollution and currently “invest billions of dollars” in technologies to do so.

“The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association supports practical, science-based measures that reduce methane emissions while maintaining safe, reliable, and affordable energy production,” Currier said.

Although many oil and gas operators do monitor and mitigate such gas leaks, Miano said, the new rules are needed to create “a level playing field” by requiring all companies to follow the same standards.

“We know that there are already investments coming into the Permian for facilities, so if you are in compliance there should not be a huge surprise because you’re already doing the work,” she said. “If you’re not, we want to make sure that you are.”

The rules drew support from environmental groups arguing they were a needed step in reducing the impacts of New Mexico’s booming oil and gas industry centered in the southeast and to counteract anti-regulatory measures enacted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

“New Mexico is standing against the Trump administration’s reckless attack on our health and standing up for state climate action,” said Nini Gu of the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Defense Fund, which sued the Environmental Protection Agency in June in response to the proposed cancellation of methane standards enacted under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden. The organization also opposed a July 7 EPA plan allowing state agencies to shorten public comment periods when considering permits for facilities releasing carbon emissions.

“By advancing this new methane rule,” Gu said, “Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham builds on New Mexico’s methane leadership and reinforces her legacy as a national leader in cutting oil and gas methane waste and pollution.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

The possibility of a radioactive release while waste is shipped to a repository near Carlsbad drew concerns from locals along the route.

Santa Fe County resident Cynthia Weehler raised the issue during a Wednesday, Aug. 5, town hall held by the U.S. Department of Energy in Hobbs to give a public update on operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

At WIPP, the Energy Department disposes of transuranic nuclear waste (TRU), which is clothing materials, equipment and other debris irradiated during nuclear activities.

The waste is buried at WIPP in a salt deposit about 2,000 feet underground. The salt gradually collapses on the waste, burying the refuse and blocking radiation from escaping.

Weehler, a frequent WIPP critic with the 285 Alliance, questioned WIPP’s preparation should an incident occur while waste is being shipped to the facility, specifically on U.S. Highway 285 from Los Alamos National Laboratory south to the repository.

The 285 Alliance is a consortium of mostly northern New Mexico residents who live along U.S. 285 around Santa Fe and Los Alamos. The group advocates frequently for transportation safety in shipping waste through those areas.

Officials at the town hall explained that the Department of Energy works with first responders along the WIPP routes, in towns such as Vaughn and Carlsbad along U.S. 285.

Weehler was unconvinced.

“What if something happened that is not on a transportation route?” she asked. “What if there was a plume of something that carried radioactive material that wasn’t on a transportation route? People don’t know when to evacuate or shelter in place should there be a plutonium release. They need to know that information.”

James Mason, intergovernmental affairs manager with the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office, said a release was unlikely, but that it would not be “airborne” or able to migrate beyond the immediate area where it would occur.

“We have a high level of confidence in our packaging and that there will not be a release. Should there be a release, this will not be an airborne event,” Mason said. “It may contaminate the ground, but it would not be what we consider airborne.”

‘Legacy waste’ from Los Alamos

The discussion came as shipments from Los Alamos were being debated by the federal government and the New Mexico Environment Department amid a proposed change to the WIPP permit that would require disposal of more waste from within New Mexico.

The proposal, announced April 23 by the state, would require that 55% of waste shipments to the repository come from Los Alamos from 2027 to 2031. The requirement would increase to 75% in 2032.

Under the proposal, all waste currently stored at the surface of Los Alamos must be sent to WIPP by 2028.

A public comment period on the permit modification ended June 22, initiating a mediation period between the state and federal government. If no agreement is reached, a subsequent public hearing will be held before the proposal can be approved.

Deputy Program Manager Ryan Flynn with Salado Isolation Mining Contractors – the contractor hired by the federal government to oversee WIPP operations – said discussions were “ongoing” and he was unsure of when a subsequent hearing would occur.

Flynn said that while the energy department and its contractor understand the intention of the state’s proposal, there were multiple “issues” the permittees raised regarding how the requirement could disrupt shipments from other sites.

“We certainly understand the desire to clean up waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory,” Flynn said.

But he pointed to a letter submitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 6 Administrator Scott Mason opposing the changes and threatening intervention from President Donald Trump, who the EPA official said could issue a “presidential waiver” to nullify the state rule should it take effect.

“We have issues in the way that the language of the agency-initiated modification was proposed,” Flynn said. “We are also mindful of the EPA’s comments, and we support those comments.”

The facility does “prioritize” legacy waste but also newly generated waste from ongoing nuclear development across the U.S., he said.

One such program is a plan by the Department of Energy to produce plutonium pits – the triggers of nuclear warheads. The plan calls for 80 plutonium pits per year by 2030 – 30 at Los Alamos and 50 at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Cleaning up the waste from such projects was a critical part of WIPP’s “mission,” Flynn said, while mitigating the lingering impacts of past nuclear programs.

“We have both an environmental and a national security mission,” Flynn said. “We are looking to clean up waste that is from the Cold War, but we also need to be able to dispose of waste we are generating from our national defense programs.”

Flynn said WIPP is about 46% full toward its statutory capacity of 6.2 million cubic feet of waste. Officials recently estimated that could mean WIPP will remain open until 2080.

Of the remaining 54% of space left for waste, Flynn said, about 5% was expected to account for legacy waste remaining at Los Alamos, based on current estimates of the volume awaiting disposal.

“So, we have plenty of space for Los Alamos waste left at our facility,” Flynn said.

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.