New Mexico Mercury

Air Quality Board passes the buck again!

On Wednesday, the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Board ruled against SWOP’s (Southwest Organizing Project) request for a public hearing. SWOP and community members were hoping the board would set a future meeting to consider a new rule to require a cumulative air quality impact analysis in the permitting process.

“Cumulative impacts” appeared to stump some members of the board. When a new industry moves into the neighborhood today, the applicant provides information about the types and amount of pollutants that will spew from his own smokestack. SWOP’s draft rule would have required the air quality board to consider the pollutants coming from all of the smokestacks in the neighborhood; hence “cumulative impacts"...

Provincial Matters, 3-17-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

The Work of Edward Abbey—Prophet of the West

Edward Abbey has been dead for 25 years. Larry McMurty called Abbey our ‘Thoreau of the West’. Abbey, who published seven novels and a score of essays and confessions and travel books all dealing with the American West, was known for his uncompromising point-of-view, his insights, his extrapolations, that cover the whole race, and hold a special resonance for citizens of this desert country.

And, of course, this ongoing work we call fledging democracy...

Insight New Mexico - Don Hancock on WIPP Leak

VB Price talks with citizen expert Don Hancock about the recent radiation leak at the WIPP site in southern New Mexico.

Distant Early Warning

Fracking wars, regional chaos and ecological fallout all around the corner in this short fiction from Ed Merta.

Provincial Matters, 3-10-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Albuquerque’s River

Most people in Albuquerque see the Rio Grande in flashes, from a bike path or a bridge. But really? That’s no way to know a river. It takes drifting downstream and sometimes, running into sandbars. The river provides water to cities and farmers. But it’s also a place of wildness, and of solace. Here's an audio postcard from a canoe trip in the spring of 2013...

Provincial Matters, 3-3-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

¡COLORES! February 28, 2014

For Albuquerque flamenco artist Jesus Muñoz, the dancer is vital to the music.

Provincial Matters, 2-24-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.