Daily Lobo 4/18/2022

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Daily Lobo new mexico

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Monday, April 18, 2022 | Vo l u m e 1 2 6 | I s s u e 3 3

The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895

New Mexico enacts community New Mexico Wild calls solar, commits to energy equity for audit of inactive wells By Nell Johnson @peachnells

More New Mexicans can now opt in to using renewable energy to power their homes after a year of rulemaking done by the Public Regulation Commission. The new Community Solar Rule, passed into law in April 2021 and adopted by the PRC on March 30, 2022, will mandate that 30% of the electricity produced by shared solar facilities be distributed to low-income communities and the organizations that support them. Individuals who may benefit from

this rule include those who qualify for Medicaid or food assistance programs. It also doesn’t limit solar energy options for those who rent the property they live on or for those who live in government-funded housing. Eligible service organizations may include places like homeless shelters or food pantries. Dylan Connelly, director of commercial and community development at Affordable Solar and volunteer at the energy activism group 350 New Mexico, has been closely engaged with community solar and its implementation. He described how

inaccessible solar energy currently is for New Mexicans. “Only about 3 to 4% of homes in New Mexico have solar on their roofs. To put it on your roof is anywhere from $20(,000) to 40,000. You can finance it over time, but you have to have really good credit,” Connelly said. Community solar means a wider variety of New Mexicans can take part in the energy transition process and the effort to stop using fossil fuels, not just those who are able to pay, according to Christopher Hall, who serves as Public Regulation Commissioner

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Solar panels lie on top of a building while the sun sets. Photo courtesy of Unsplash by Nuno Marques.

Courtesy Photo

Fiber Arts Fiesta returns to ABQ with fuzzy flair By Nell Johnson @peachnells The Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta brought crafters together at the Expo New Mexico Manuel Lujan Jr. Exhibit Complex from April 14-16. Eighteen different guilds were in attendance representing a variety of fiber art disciplines such as quilting, beadery, weaving, embroidering, lacemaking and more. Vendors sold their work, judges awarded prizes to spectacular pieces and guilds held demonstrations for those interested in picking up some new skills. Typically a biennial event, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the fiesta from being held in 2020. Event Director Elizabeth Whitehead expressed her excitement about having New Mexico’s fiber arts community

gathered under one roof again. “No. 1 is having everyone here together — that’s the big thing. Talking to the vendors, talking to the visitors, getting a lot of thank you’s for putting on the show,” Whitehead said. The fiesta is more than an opportunity for artists to sell or show off their work. It’s also a connective experience that bridges media, skill level and nationality. Rikki Quintana, an entrepreneur, was a vendor at the event. She is the founder and CEO of HoonArts, a fair-trade company that sells fiber art made by craftspeople in Central Asia, namely Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Her presence at the event means that New Mexicans are able to connect with artists halfway around the world. “(Art) can inspire people and connect people without needing to speak

the same language. So it’s always seemed (like) a way to start a conversation,” Quintana said. The Enchanted Lacemakers Guild helps maintain the cultural tradition of lacemaking, a process that originated in Europe and was almost ended by the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution. Member Tammy Padilla explained that the Fiber Arts Fiesta had a visitor from Germany who shared enthusiasm for lacemaking, specifically her favorite technique bobbin lace, or “klöppelspitzen” in German. “A lot of our books come from Europe, and they’re in other languages. He knew all about (lacemaking). He was telling us in German what he had seen the bobbin lacers doing,” Padilla said. There was a lot of variation in

Inside this Lobo ROY: UNM feminist literary club is totally radical (pg. 3) HAULOTTE: LETTER: UNM must fulfill its promise to New Mexicans: Bargain with the graduate union now (pg. 4) SECOR: REVIEW: ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ is worth a few sickles (pg. 4)

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By Madeline Pukite @maddogpukite

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, a group that advocates for the conservation of wild land, issued a letter on March 17 that calls on the Bureau of Land Management to conduct a formal audit of inactive wells on federal land. “What we're looking for with the audit is for BLM to actually do a full analysis of how many (of) what we call orphaned or abandoned wells really do exist on BLM lands in New Mexico,” NM Wild staff attorney Logan Glasenapp said. Glasenapp said the group wrote the letter asking for the audit right now because the acting state director for the Bureau of Land Management, Melanie Barnes, has a background in biology as opposed to a background in the fossil fuel industry, as prior directors have had. They are hoping Barnes will thus be more mindful of perspectives that don’t include increasing profits in the fossil fuel sector. There are over 110,000 oil wells in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral resources. The New Mexico Oil Conservation Division identified 6,000 wells that have not produced oil or gas in over a year. Of those, 2,600 are on federal lands in the state. An abandoned oil well, or an oil well that is no longer producing and has not been properly closed, poses threats to the surrounding environment, according to Gary Weissmann, a researcher in the earth and planetary sciences department at the University of New Mexico who also worked on abandoned wells in Montana. “The wells — when they're com-

pleted — they have a steel casing that goes down, that seals off the aquifers and everything else all the way down to where the production zone is. And so that steel casing corrodes over time, especially if there's some reactive gasses in the oil horizon, which is common ... The problem is, once those (are) corroded, then you can get fluids (such as oil) from the reservoir going up into the aquifers,” Weissmann said. A large part of why NM Wild is asking for the audit is because of how the large oil conglomerates are financially benefiting from not having to properly close their wells, even though not remediating the land around inactive wells legally goes against their lease, according to Glasenapp. “One of the things that they agreed to (when leasing the land) is that, when that well is no longer producing, they will plug and remediate the land. So the goal (with remediating) is basically (to) make it look like there was never a well pad there … Any company that has not done the work, is saving that much money from not doing the work and continuing to make money by being an active purchaser of leases that are producing oil and gas,” Glassenapp said. If an operator or a lessee violates their lease by abandoning an inactive well on federal land, BLM has the authority to revoke their ability to enter future leases, according to Glasenapp and NM Wild. The effects of revoking a company’s ability to enter another lease would have a substantial effect on the economy as it stands, according to Janie Chermak, the chair of the UNM economics department. “You know, hate or love fossil fuels, it's a pretty big part of the economy right now, and it would have drastic

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Henry Hammel / Daily Lobo / @DailyLobo

A pen lies on an audit form that features an oil well.

JOHNSON: REVIEW: Poetry collection ‘The Loneliest Girl’ confronts sexist mythology (pg. 5) ROY: Former UNM staff member dedicates life to nonprofit work (pg. 6) KLEINHANS: Lobos softball team pulls off historic 2-1 series win against Fresno State (pg. 6) BULGER: UNM baseball loses close game to SDSU 11-8 (pg. 10)

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