Tales Of Our Times: New Mexico Was Steered By Geologic History And Climate

Tales of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water

NM Was Steered by Geologic History and Climate

Once upon a time, shallow seas covered large areas of what has become New Mexico. The ancient seas deposited huge reserves of coal, oil and gas that have been useful to the state’s economy. As the climate dried, an assortment of settlers was drawn to the region. With dry air also came rare vistas and long-range visibility.

Early ones on the scene were Native Americans, who in time were called Indians. In time, others who came would be called ranchers. A later group, known as lungers (having lung disease), came to regain good health in the dry air. Some of those stayed on and rose to high position. Clinton P. Anderson came here and became Secretary of Agriculture under President Harry Truman. An urgent task he faced was to deal with the worldwide food crisis after World War II. Another who came here for the healthy dry air was John Crosby, who in 1957 founded the Santa Fe Opera.

In the strangest of ways, another different sort was drawn to New Mexico’s mesas, mountains, skies and climate. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer knew New Mexico as a young man and helped choose Los Alamos in 1942 to bring the world’s leading scientists in atomic physics to work on the Manhattan Project. This singular step inserted a new regard for science and engineering in New Mexico that is now part of projects and decisions throughout the state.

Each of these many factors has proved to be a useful addition to the nature of New Mexico. None has proved flawless.

The environmental movement in New Mexico began in the late 1960’s. Since the beginning, the factors shaping New Mexico’s environmental policy have included coal and oil sales, Indians, ranchers, those who came to New Mexico for their health, and science and engineering. All these elements add up to unique aspects of New Mexico.

The morning after Richard Nixon died in 1994, I was on a panel on the environment in Albuquerque. When his death was announced, the Indian on the panel rose to speak at some length in honor of  President Nixon’s achievements. He said nothing about the nation’s formative clean air and clean water laws that were signed by Nixon. Instead, he told us the essence of Nixon in Indian life. In 1970, Nixon signed into effect Public Law 91-550, passed by a large margin in Congress, returning Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo. We all have our perspectives of history.

Many issues rose in the 1970s from large coal-fired power plants sprouting in the Four Corners states with mediocre air pollution controls. Early on, NM Senator Clinton Anderson took a strong interest in the details, perhaps because he first came here to cure his lung disease. Anderson was influential on the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. In May 1971, that committee held five hearings in five states in five days to hear about “Problems of Electrical Power Production in the Southwest.”

The committee member from each state, regardless of party, traveled to attend the hearing in his state. That was then. Hearings now rarely work that way. Aspects of science and engineering helped to spur the hearings and were important to the findings. Technical and economic data helped steer actions that brought much improved pollution controls. 

So it is that New Mexico’s history has been shaped by the varieties of people drawn to its uncommon assets of fuels, climate, and bold skies and land forms.

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