CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — Workers at the federal government’s underground nuclear waste dump in southern New Mexico will be able to signal officials aboveground in the event of an emergency thanks to a new wireless communication system. The U.S. Department of Energy and the repository’s manager announced the installation of the system Thursday. It includes audible and flashing alarms and ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico environmental regulators plan to roll out a revamped proposal for governing cleanup of Cold War-era waste from one of the federal government’s premier nuclear laboratories. State Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn is scheduled to outline the changes to the consent order with Los Alamos National Laboratory during a meeting Wednesday afternoon. The presentation will kick ...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has joined a coalition of 17 state attorneys general to combat global warming by examining whether fossil fuel companies misled investors or the public on the impact of their business. State Deputy Attorney General Tania Maestas met Tuesday in New York with other prosecutors in the coalition. New Mexico depends heavily ...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s state land commissioner is ordering a broad examination of easements for injection wells used by the oil and natural gas industry to dispose of waste saltwater, in response to environmental damage at a site in the southeast of the state. State regulators blame Midland, Texas-based Siana Operating for spills of oily water at ...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Concerns over a bird that ranges across the American West continue to delay federal oil and gas lease sales, five months after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell proclaimed the Obama administration had found a way to balance drilling and conservation. The Interior Department said it will defer the sale of almost 60,000 acres of leases that were ...

HOBBS, N.M. (AP) — Oilfield companies doing business in New Mexico and West Texas have paid workers $1.5 million in back wages and damages following a federal investigation. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced Thursday that Nova Mud Inc., Nova Hardbandings LLC and Nova Sand LLC violated overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is openly stepping up efforts to find and deport immigrants who were part of the 2014 surge of illegal crossings by unaccompanied children and families. The politically fraught endeavor is a follow-through on a nearly 2-year-old warning that those immigrants who don’t win permission to stay in the United States would be sent packing. ...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An environmental group is accusing a New Mexico utility regulator of misconduct for asking the state’s largest electric provider to make a political donation to a Democrat running for the state treasurer’s office. New Energy Economy filed the complaint against Public Regulation Commissioner Karen Montoya with the Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday. The Santa ...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Texas oil driller has taken the first step toward cleaning up a spill at a waste-water injection well in southeastern New Mexico used by the oil and natural gas industry. Midland, Texas-based Siana Operations has filed for a remediation permit and is likely to join state officials this week in assessing damage to property ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The federal government is investing nearly $7 million in 33 small businesses across the country to build partnerships with national laboratories in hopes of speeding up development of clean energy technology, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday. The selected businesses represent only a fraction of the hundreds that applied to participate in the first round ...