Center for Biological Diversity v. State

Three environmental organizations filed a lawsuit in New Mexico state court asserting that the State of New Mexico; the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department; and the Department’s acting secretary were failing to fulfill their obligations under the New Mexico Oil and Gas Act to address “thousands of unplugged, inactive oil and gas wells and unremediated extraction sites littered across the state.” The plaintiffs alleged that the inactive and unplugged wells “emit dangerous air pollutants, contaminate scarce freshwater resources, leak climate-warming gases such as methane, release toxic pollutants onto the land, and create grave risks of explosions and blow-outs that exacerbate harm and add further injury to the environment and those in proximity to these extraction sites.” In addition, the complaint alleged that the wells had imposed “tens of millions of dollars in cleanup costs” on the public, with the cost “projected to balloon into the billions of dollars in the near future.” The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that the defendants were out of compliance with their duties under the Oil and Gas Act and to enjoin the defendants to enforce plugging and remediation obligations and to comply with mandatory financial assurance collection and forfeiture provisions of the Oil and Gas Act. The plaintiffs also asked the court to enjoin the expenditure of funds from the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund to plug, abandon, restore, or remediate wells without forfeiture of the well operators’ financial assurance and enforcement of the operators’ obligations.