I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The latest in a string of nationwide oil and gas industry-sponsored “Rally for Jobs” protests against government environmental and safety regulations is scheduled for Wednesday in Farmington. Sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and numerous other industry donors, the rally is expected to be attended by workers from oil and gas companies, coal mines and power plants across the state.
State House minority leader Rep. Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, and San Juan County Commissioner Jim Henderson, R-Farmington, will speak at the rally.
The Farmington protest is one of several held across the U.S. A similar API-sponsored Rally for Jobs is also scheduled to be held Wednesday in Joliet, Ill., according to an industry website. Three similar API-sponsored rallies were held across Texas last week and a rally was held in Canton, Ohio Tuesday. Additional protests are scheduled for Friday in Grand Junction, Colo.
The oil and gas industry face proposed new safety and environmental regulations.
In the midst of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in May, the Obama administration announced a six-month moratorium on new deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. That moratorium was front and center in Texas “Rally for Jobs” protests this month, where speakers denounced it as a jobs killer, according to local media reports.
Calls for Congressional reform of safety and environmental regulations followed a string of oil rig and refinery explosions and fires across the U.S. over recent years, which have killed hundreds of workers. In March, two workers were killed in an explosion at the Navajo refinery in Artesia, N.M.
The N.M. rally will be held between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at McGee Park in Farmington.
