New Mexico Environment Department Holds Confidential Meetings Re: Clean Transportation Fuel Program Rule Making

A contract attorney representing the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), has insisted that participants of a series of meetings the agency is hosting, commit to confidentiality or be excluded from the meetings.

The meetings are being held today and tomorrow by NMED in conjunction with the rule-making authority of the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) in establishing new rules creating the Clean Transportation Fuels Program.

Rule-making, a responsibility of the EIB, and which can affect all members of the public, is supposed to be a public process.

Below is a pdf of the email exchange between the attorney representing the NMED and a reporter with The Candle, who had filed an entry of appearance for the rule-making process, and was invited to participate in the meetings, but would not consent to the requirement that participants of the meeting commit to a confidentiality agreement. The second pdf is of the Noticeof Intent to File Motion in Limine Regarding Party Discussions, filed by NMED.