Posts by Bryant Furlow

New Mexico and Texas have seen more people killed by oil and gas pipeline accidents since 2000 than any other states, concludes a new study of refinery and pipeline accidents and pollution released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation. New Mexico has had 58 significant pipeline accidents over the past decade, killing 15 and injuring 17 people.

New hearings on an insurance company rate hike will continue after The New Mexico Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to deny Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico’s petition to stop them. The company had asked the court to halt new Insurance Division hearings to review a previously-approved but controversial health insurance rate hike.

The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) voted 4-to-1 Tuesday afternoon to appoint John G. Franchini as the state’s newest superintendent of insurance. Commissioner Jason Marks cast the dissenting vote.
Franchini has worked in the insurance industry for more than 35 years, since he joined his father’s insurance brokerage as a salesman, according to a letter to commissioners [...]

Despite bucking a national trend of increasing child poverty and a reduction in school drop-out rates, New Mexico ranks last or near-last in seven of 10 measures of child welfare, from teen deaths to proportion of children living in poverty, according to a report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

BP has agreed to sell $3 billion worth of BP’s Permian Basin gas and oil holdings in southeast New Mexico and Texas, to Houston-based Apache Corp, a company criticized in the past for poor safety practices.
The sale is part of BP’s $7 billion fire sale of assets around the world to help pay for a [...]

New Mexico is one of 16 states nationwide planning to hold a sales tax holiday in August for the purchase of back-to-school supplies. But tax holidays are an expensive and ineffective gimmick, according to several think tanks.
The holidays cost states an estimated $60 million in lost tax revenues and do not encourage additional consumer spending, [...]

In the face of a state budget crisis, New Mexico should cut funding for existing charters and temporarily halt approvals of new charter schools, says a new report released Friday by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC).
But that could lead to the closure of “90 percent” of the state’s charter schools, New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools Director [...]

The biotech company that received $100 million to grow genetically-engineered, fuel-producing algae near Columbus, N.M. is “one of the best-positioned companies” to make oil-producing “super algae” a competitive energy source, according to The New York Times.
Sapphire Energy, based in San Diego, Calif., was awarded $100 million in federal stimulus money and loan guarantees last year [...]

Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance plans across the U.S. have raised policyholders’ rates while accumulating billions of dollars in surpluses – much more than necessary to protect the companies, according to a Consumers Union study released Thursday.

New Mexico has become the 13th state to side with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s new rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries, cement facilities and coal power plants, Attorney General Gary King announced Thursday.
“The coalition today filed a motion in the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene to defend the [...]

A newly-released Sandia National Labs study analyzing projected rainfall patterns across the U.S. suggests that most — but not all — of the lower 48 states would suffer economically from unchecked climate change over the next four decades.
California, the Pacific Northwest and Colorado could actually benefit from climate change-related impacts elsewhere, the model suggests. Populations [...]

The president of California’s Anthem Blue Cross resigned Tuesday after months of controversy over her efforts to impose a 39 percent health insurance rate increase for 800,000 policyholders.
Leslie Margolin, 55, ran Athem for just 2 1/2 years. She has faced intense criticism from California lawmakers and the Obama administration, including U.S. Health and Human Services [...]

The deadly March 2 explosion at the Navajo refinery in Artesia was just one of the latest in a series of refinery blasts that have killed at least 15 workers this year alone. Last month, the U.S. government began to impose higher penalties for safety violations and to implement of a new ‘Severe Violator Enforcement Program,’ which will allow patterns of safety violations in one state to prompt inspections of a company’s facilities nationwide.

National Guard units will send 1,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexican border along New Mexico and other border states to support for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, U.S. Department of Defense officials announced at a press conference at the Pentagon Monday.
The troops will begin deploying as soon as Aug. 1, Pentagon officials said.
New Mexico [...]

The Obama administration has no plans to send Gov. Bill Richardson to North Korea, an anonymous official told the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency Monday.
The South Korean JoongAng Daily newspaper reported Monday morning that Obama was considering allowing Richardson to accept an invitation to visit Pyongyang.