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Illustration by Keith Lewis
ALBUQUERQUE — For a look back on 2008 from an environmental perspective, I made an extremely unscientific poll of green leaders who were unlucky enough to get caught by my phone calls this week as they were stuck in the office, walking through shopping malls, dealing with screaming children or merely trying to have a nice breakfast at the coffee shop that I call my office.
I asked all of these people to talk about what they thought were the biggest environmental stories of the year. They mentioned Tax Increment Development Districts, the proposed Desert Rock power plant, river otters, the destruction wrought by all-terrain vehicles in national forests and a new law allowing concealed weapons in national parks. But mostly they wanted to talk politics. Like everyone else, environmentalists were consumed by the 2008 elections and the sea change coming to the Legislature, Congress and the White House.
Here’s their choices for the top environmental story of the year.
The 2008 Elections
Sandy Buffett, executive director of Conservation Voters of New Mexico
“The big winner in the 2008 elections was New Mexico’s air, land and water. There was some coattail effect from Obama in November, but not in the June primaries. The candidates we supported won by talking to voters about clean energy and ensuring we’re not compromising public health, clean water and air. So to now have new friends and champions who understand why we need to protect the resources and special places that make New Mexico great means we can move beyond defense against industry lobbyists and hopefully move toward making positive change. [For example,] in the legislative session there will be a green jobs bill and there will be an attempt to reform the TIDD policies to close the loopholes that allow greenfield sprawl developers to grab subsidies intended for infill development.”
Buh-bye Bush!
Jim Baca, New Mexico Natural Resource Trustee and a director of The Wilderness Society
“There’s no question, Bush leaving office is the biggest story of the year. Electing people like Barack Obama, Tom Udall, Martin Heinrich — that’s big news for the environment. … And we’ll get rid of people like [Vice President Dick] Cheney, who wanted to start drilling in the Valle Vidal. With this election we’ve done a complete reversal of how we’re going to approach these problems. Obama is not a guy who understands western public lands issues, so his appointments will be very important. [Secretary of the Interior nominee Ken] Salazar is neutral — not good or bad — but he’s experienced.
“The next important picks will be for jobs that are not Cabinet-level: the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Minerals Management Service. They’re really important, but they don’t get any attention. We’ll know how good Obama’s administration will be [when they're announced]. At the very least I think they’ll stop the bleeding.”
The Economic Crisis
Joanie Quinn, education and marketing coordinator at the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission
“I think the biggest story of the year has been the effect of what I insist on calling the economic ‘depression’ on efforts to mitigate climate change. To me, that’s the big one. We can either look at this as an opportunity to really start moving in directions that will support carbon reductions as we fight our way out of the economic crisis, or we can be blinded by the crisis and fall into business as usual.”
Drill, Baby, Drill!
Eric Jantz, staff attorney for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center
“Definitely the Santa Fe ordinance for oil and gas development in the Galisteo Basin. That’s huge because it’s one of the first times there’s been a grassroots democratic movement to get government to really regulate the oil and gas industry. The industry has historically had a lot of dispensations from the federal and state government. The Santa Fe County ordinance is one of the first, and best, where a community has said, ‘Look, we’re not necessarily opposed to energy development but we want to do it on our terms.’ The ordinance sets out a long-term plan for oil and gas development in Santa Fe County, rather than the piecemeal development that’s happened in most of the West. It lays out a plan and process for oil and gas developers to follow. It also takes measures to protect public health and safety, and that’s coming more and more to light as oil and gas production expands to communities where people are living. It’s a model for other areas in the state and in the country and it’s easily translatable to other kinds of resource development, like coal mining and uranium mining.”
New Hope for Endangered Species
Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director at Wild Earth Guardians
“There really is no more important issue in endangered species than whether you give protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or not. Now we can see the tangible results of [politicization at the Fish and Wildlife Service]: for more than two years no new species were listed. We have 300 species that are awaiting protection and we’ve seen proposals but we’ve seen no new listings. The Bush administration was able to be very successful at accomplishing one of its main goals, which was to fundamentally obstruct ESA enforcement. A void of leadership at the Department of the Interior enabled people to ravage science and deny endangered species protection. Officials were actually competing to take credit for reversing protections on Gunnison’s prairie dog!
[Secretary of the Interior nominee Ken] Salazar will have to clean house. We hope that the next director of Fish and Wildlife does not come from within because that agency is absolutely contaminated. We need an outsider to come in and reform the service. Politics can’t interfere with listing decisions.”
