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.

Environmental organizations' lawsuit asserting that State of New Mexico defendants were failed to fulfill obligations to address unplugged, inactive oil and gas wells and unremediated extraction sites.

Center for Biological Diversity v. State

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Environmental Organizations Filed Suit to Compel New Mexico to Enforce Oil and Gas Act’s Requirements for Inactive and Unplugged Wells

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Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

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Environmental Organizations Filed Suit to Compel New Mexico to Enforce Oil and Gas Act’s Requirements for Inactive and Unplugged Wells

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance