LOECC Executive Director Position Description
Job Summary:
Land of Enchantment Clean Cities Coalition (LOECC) is seeking an energetic leader to serve as Executive Director and guide the organization in reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector in New Mexico.
As part of a national network of coalitions that are funded and supported by US Department of Energy (DOE), LOECC has worked as a non-profit 501(c)3 throughout New Mexico since 1994 helping fleets, municipalities, businesses and individuals to promote alternative transportation fuels that include natural gas, propane, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen and bio-fuels to reduce vehicle emissions. The Executive Director will have access to a national network of Clean Cities Coalitions as well as direct partnerships with the DOE, and multiple stakeholder organizations within New Mexico.
Further, the Coalition promotes multi-modal transportation and vehicle miles traveled reduction by providing personal and commercial transportation alternatives that improve economic and environmental justice and quality of life for all New Mexicans.
Essential Duties and Skills:
This position is responsible for the strategic leadership and direction of LOECC within the broader Clean Cities and Communities network. This position performs a variety of advanced professional, technical, analytical, and administrative duties. Duties also require interaction with government leaders and staff as well as community leaders and private sector fleets and fuels personnel.
Work duties can include, but are not limited to, building the financial and outreach capacity of the coalition; developing annual and quarterly work plans; providing technical assistance to stakeholders; engaging with peer coalitions; leading coalition communications including attendance at events, social media, newsletter and other tools; and daily management of programs and activities. The work assignments are broad in scope and are performed with considerable independence.
Qualified candidates will be excellent communicators and project managers and possess strong creativity, professional organization, outreach, education and political skills. Candidates must also have a functional understanding of technical issues, including policies related to alternative fuels and alternative fuel technologies.
The successful candidate will be driven to grow the LOECC into a leading force for alternative fuels in New Mexico. The position will require extensive reporting, networking, and fundraising abilities.
Work Environment and Requirements:
The Executive Director is expected to maintain a primary residence in the State of New Mexico. Daily duties may be performed remotely, with extensive travel within New Mexico expected. Candidate must have personal transportation available to reach all communities within New Mexico. Out-of-state travel to at least two DOE meetings annually is required.
Minimum Education and/or Experience:
Bachelor’s degree
Experience with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, website management, and publishing software considered a plus.
Compensation:
Minimum compensation is $45,000 annually. Compensation will be commensurate with qualifications and experience, pending approval of the LOECC Board of Directors. The successful candidate may have the ability to increase annual compensation based on successful fundraising within the bylaws of the non-profit and subject to the approval of the LOECC Board of Directors.
To Apply:
Please submit a resume (or CV) and cover letter outlining applicable qualifications, experience, and vision. Applications will be reviewed by current LOECC staff, supporting staff, and Board of Directors.
For more information, please visit https://www.loecc.org and https://cleancities.energy.gov. Please send detailed applications and/or questions to loecleancities@newmexico.com
Environment Department announces public meetings on Clean Transportation Fuel Program rule
Virtual and in-person meetings give public opportunity to ask questions, provide input
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) announces the dates of public meetings on the discussion draft of the Clean Transportation Fuel Program rule:
In-person 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Monday, January 6, 2025, in the Community Meeting Room at the International District Library, 7601 Central Ave NE in Albuquerque, and
Virtually noon - 2 p.m. on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Details including the Webex link are on NMED’s calendar listing for January 9.
NMED staff will facilitate these meetings and answer questions from attendees.
The public can also submit written public feedback on the discussion draft rule here by 5 p.m. on January 17, 2025. The formal rulemaking process planned for the spring and summer of 2025 provides additional opportunities for public engagement and comments.
New Mexico’s clean transportation fuel program enables producers and importers of low-carbon transportation fuels to generate clean fuel credits, which can then be sold to producers and importers of high-carbon fuels. This credit marketplace will diversify the state’s transportation fuels, paving the way for less climate and air pollution. This 2-minute video describes how a clean transportation fuel program will work in New Mexico:
The rules are a critical piece of the state’s overall strategy to reduce pollution from the transportation sector - the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants in New Mexico. They complement a suite of existing and future low-carbon strategies, like developing clean hydrogen to power heavy-duty trucks, adopting renewable energy requirements for the electric grid, and the Clean Car and Truck rule adopted by the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) and the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Air Quality Control Board in 2023.
If any person requires assistance, an interpreter or auxiliary aid to participate in one of the public meetings, please contact Bonney Hughes at (505)-479-2207 or climatechange@env.nm.gov at least 5 days prior to the meeting date and specify which meeting you intend to attend and what type of assistance you need (TDD or TTY users please access the number via the New Mexico Relay Network, 1-800-659-1779 (voice); TTY users: 1-800-659-8331).
More information on the rules can be found on NMED’s Clean Transportation Fuel Standard website: https://www.env.nm.gov/climate-change-bureau/clean-fuel-standard/.
Important books that made the news in 2024 related to minerals, resources and transportation, as follows:
The revelatory Pulitzer Prize finalist for General Nonfiction, New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award.
An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that affect us all.
Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.
Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo—because we are all implicated.
In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in Western colonialism’s violent exploitation of human life and the natural environment.
A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh’s new book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.
Writing against the backdrop of the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, Ghosh frames these historical stories in a way that connects our shared colonial histories with the deep inequality we see around us today. By interweaving discussions on everything from the global history of the oil trade to the migrant crisis and the animist spirituality of Indigenous communities around the world, The Nutmeg’s Curse offers a sharp critique of Western society and speaks to the profoundly remarkable ways in which human history is shaped by non-human forces.
Drawing from hundreds of confidential oil industry documents spanning decades, this explosive work of investigative reporting reveals for the first time the far-right conspiracy that’s stopped the world from preventing the climate crisis.
In The Petroleum Papers, investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki tells the story of how the American oil companies that founded the tar sands in Alberta, Canada—home to the third-biggest oil reserves on the planet—ignored warnings about climate devastation as early as 1959. Instead of alerting the world to act on this impending global disaster, Exxon, Koch Industries, Shell and others created ad campaigns saying climate change isn't real and that alternatives to oil are an economic disaster. These companies built a global right-wing echo chamber to ensure tar sands could keep flowing into the U.S., which helped elect Donald Trump and now leaves the Joe Biden administration with a sprawling climate mess.
But Dembicki also tells the high-stakes stories of people fighting back: the Seattle lawyer who brought Big Tobacco to its knees and is now going after Big Oil, a young Filipino activist who saw her family drown in a climate disaster, and a former engineer at Exxon who was pushed out for asking too many hard questions. With experts now warning we have less than a decade to get global emissions under control, The Petroleum Papers provides a step-by-step account of how we got to this precipice and the politicians and companies who deserve our blame.
Geoff Dembicki is an investigative climate change reporter from Alberta, Canada, home of the largest tar sand deposits in the world. His book Are We Screwed? won the 2018 Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. He is a regular contributor to the Tyee and VICE. He lives in Brooklyn.
This unprecedented look inside the global battle to power our lives is “required reading for anyone interested in the 360-degree impacts of the energy transition” (Daniel Poneman, former US Deputy Secretary of Energy) from acclaimed Reuters reporter Ernest Scheyder.
To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of necessary materials, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder.
The War Below reveals the explosive brawl among industry titans, conservationists, community groups, policymakers, and many others over whether the habitats of rare plants, sensitive ecosystems, Indigenous holy sites, and other places should be dug up for their riches.
With accessible and “illuminating” (Chris Miller, author of Chip War) writing, Scheyder shows the human toll of this war and explains why recycling and other newer technologies have struggled to gain widespread use. He also expertly chronicles Washington’s attempts to wean itself off supplies from China, the global leader in mineral production and processing. The War Below paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is at stake in this new fight for energy independence, revealing how America and the rest of the world’s hunt for the “new oil” directly affects us all.
New Motor Vehicle Emissions Standards (Advanced Clean Cars II/Advanced Clean Trucks) and Clean Fuel Standards — New Mexico Environment Department
The New Motor Vehicle Emission Standards are incorporated in the New Mexico Administrative Code, Title 20, Chapter 2, Part 91 (20.2.91 NMAC). See 20.2.91 NMAC at: HTML | PDF . The standard is broken into three rules.
ACCII applies to vehicle manufacturers, not consumers. It directs manufacturers to deliver an increasing number of new, on-road low- and zero-emission light-duty cars and trucks to New Mexico. Starting with Model Year 2027, 43 percent of new light-duty vehicles delivered to the state must comply with the rule, and ending with Model Year 2032, the rule ensures that over 80% of new vehicles meet the standard. The rule does not apply to Model Year 2033 or later and does not ban deliveries of new gasoline or diesel vehicles.
ACT requires that 40-75% of new, on-road medium- and heavy-duty vehicles delivered for sale in the state be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. The rule continues to apply to Model Year 2036 and later medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and it does not ban deliveries of new gasoline or diesel trucks.
HDO updates standards, testing, and compliance mechanisms for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions from on-road heavy-duty vehicles.
When do the rules go into effect?
Calendar Years Model Year Advanced Clean Cars II & Advanced Clean Trucks Class 2B-3 Class 4-8 Class 7-8; 2026-2027 2027 43% 15% 20% 15% 2027-2028 2028 51% 20% 30% 20% 2028-2029 2029 59% 25% 40% 25% 2029-2030 2030 68% 30% 50% 30% 2030-2031 2031 76% 35% 55% 35% 2031-2032 2032 82% 40% 60% 40% 2032-2033 2033 45% 65% 40% 2033-2034 2034–50% 70% 40% 2034+ 2035+ 55% 75% 40%
Table 1: New zero-emission vehicle rule requirements for delivery to New Mexico by the automakers.
Spotlight on the ACCII rule:
Vehicle Types and why New Mexico needs Low- and Zero- Emission Vehicles
Advanced Clean Cars I Rulemaking (2022)
Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks, and Heavy Duty Omnibus Rulemaking (2023)
Contact Us For More about New Motor Vehicle Emission Standard
https://www.env.nm.gov/climate-change-bureau/transportation/
505-479-2207
NEW REPORT ISSUED ON HOW THE EV TRANSITION WILL IMPACT STATE AND LOCAL TAX REVENUES & EXPENDITURES.
SYRACUSE, June 20, 2024 -- The Dynamic Sustainability Lab at Syracuse University today released a groundbreaking report that provides the first comprehensive analysis of the implications of the electric vehicle transition to state and local budgets. An Op-Ed on the home page of Governing this morning can be found here: https://www.governing.com/finance/the-multibillion-dollar-implications-of-evs-for-state-budgets
The report “The Emerging Highway and Roads Revenue Gap: the Electric Vehicle Transition and Implications for State Budgets” was commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts and authored by Dr. Jay Golden, the Pontarell Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and director of the Dynamic Sustainability Lab.
Policy makers at both the state and local level as well as the general public will find this report a useful guide in navigating the rapid transition to the electrification of passenger cars and trucks in America. As discussed by Dr. Golden, “While EVs will play a critical role in our nation’s efforts to address climate change and a net-zero carbon economy the transition does present various serious risks.”
Golden went on to add, “Our nation’s road, highways and bridges continue to deteriorate and the critical funds to support our infrastructure through the federal and state fuel taxes will be adversely impacted by the EV transition and policy makers need to begin to develop alternative revenue sources while understanding transportation related expenditures will increase over current levels.”
Key Findings of the report include:
1. Without new funding solutions, states will run out of money to support transportation programs, in particular because of the increased loss of federal and state fuel taxes.
2. States across the country are failing to adequately account for emerging budget shortfalls resulting from the EV transition.
3. States are ill-prepared for the growing demand on budgets resulting from “increased” infrastructure expenditures as our highways, roads, and bridges continue to decay and are not well maintained.
4. A very limited number of states are exploring alternative tax programs, including technologies to track and impose fees on actual vehicle mileage in a calendar year, as well as additional tolls and fees for EV registrations.
5. The EV transition will also impact mass transit in some states.
About the Dynamic Sustainability Lab
Launched during the fall of 2021, The Dynamic Sustainability Lab examines the opportunities as well as risks and unintended consequences resulting from the rapid transition to a net-zero carbon economy through a new generation of sustainable technologies, strategies and policies. The lab’s focus is in providing interdisciplinary scientific approaches that support organizations in realizing the transition by identifying the dynamic risks and developing strategies and tools to achieve success.
Securing Critical Materials for U.S. Electric Vehicle Industry
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
https://publications.anl.gov/anlpubs/2024/03/187907.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
This study explores the prospective supply of upstream critical materials, providing insights into the U.S.'s capacity to meet its Electric Vehicle (EV) and Energy Storage System (ESS) deployment targets for 2035. It evaluates the proportion of critical materials demand that can be met by domestic upstream sources and the amount that will require non-U.S. sources. The analysis considers geological resources and current international development activities, contributing to the understanding of mineral supply security as the global community strives for net-zero emissions by 2050. The study focuses on five materials assessed in the 2023 DOE Critical Materials Assessment – Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Graphite, and Manganese. The study scrutinizes potential non-U.S. sources that could meet the United States’ upstream critical material demand, examining supplies from countries with Free Trade Agreements (FTA), members of the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), economic allies without FTAs (“Non-FTA countries”), and countries associated with Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) such as China and Russia. The report highlights current activities that, while not yet quantifiable, are intended to expand and secure supply chain for critical minerals among U.S. allies and partner nations.
Assessment. Despite the lack of domestic mining capacity for manganese, the 2023 DOE Critical Materials Assessment deems manganese as “not critical” in both the near and medium terms, due to a lack of supply risk and its overall importance to clean energy technologies. According to Figure 2, the U.S. appears well-positioned to meet its lithium demand through domestic production, supplemented by supply from FTA countries if needed; however, graphite sourced from economic partners in Non-FTA countries will be needed in the near and medium term. While significant capacity exists in FTA and MSP countries to support upstream cobalt and nickel demand required for U.S. deployment, the global push for decarbonization will lead to increased demand for these resources, and thus continuing ongoing U.S. government efforts to secure access to upstream materials from non-FTA trade and defense partners will be crucial to ensure supply chain security. Nickel, cobalt, and graphite represent opportunities for the U.S. to strengthen international trade relations, regional security, and clean energy deployment, as well as to expand and enhance recycling efforts, thereby ensuring a diversified and secure upstream supply. Note: Lithium is in contained tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) while other materials are in contained tonnes of metal. Data for domestic projects last updated February 2024, for international projects September 2023.
Key highlights for the four materials are as follows:
• Lithium: While domestic lithium production is currently limited, the next decade could witness a surge from promising projects in the pipeline, potentially satisfying domestic demand and positioning the U.S. as a key global producer of lithium. Significant capacity exists and is planned in FTA and MSP countries, strengthening U.S. lithium security (See Figure 2).
• Nickel: The nickel demand needed to meet the U.S. deployment target exceeds the anticipated U.S. upstream supply for this critical material from both mining and recycling. The deficit will require supply from non-U.S. sources. FTA and MSP partners such as Australia, Canada, and Finland, have the potential to double their production in the medium term, which could strengthen access to nickel needed to meet the U.S. deployment target; however, in both the near and medium term, a significant portion of the global nickel supply may come from Non-FTA countries, particularly Indonesia, the Philippines, and a number of countries in southern Africa including Botswana and South Africa (See Figure 2).
• Cobalt: In the near and medium term, the supply of cobalt from U.S. mining will likely be limited, and thus recycling and non-U.S. sources will be crucial. A significant supply of mined cobalt may come from Non-FTA countries, mostly the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with most of it refined in China. To secure the cobalt supply chain, expanding processing and refining capacities offers an additional diversified trade pathway for DRC ore, along with expanded cobalt production outside of DRC, in strategic partners like Indonesia and the Philippines.
• Graphite: The demand for graphite exceeds the domestic supply in both the near and medium term. The current U.S. supply of natural graphite is limited, with a majority of it located in China. In the near term, meeting U.S. demand with natural graphite supply from FTA and MSP countries is unlikely. However, scaling domestic synthetic graphite production and continued innovation presents a promising potential to mitigate this risk. In the medium term, non-U.S. supply sources of natural graphite become more diverse with new planned capacity in both FTA countries like Canada and Australia and Non-FTA economic partners in Tanzania and Mozambique.
This study underscores the complexities and challenges in scaling the supply of critical materials lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese from both mining and recycling. These challenges span economics, technology, financing, geopolitics, environmental concerns, and human rights.
This study also proposes potential enabling approaches, and highlights current efforts underway to overcome these challenges, which could bolster U.S. efforts in securing these critical minerals. These include further expanding sustainable development and economic partnerships to increase trade with Non-FTA countries that have significant capacity; strengthening processing, refining, and recycling in the U.S. and allied nations; and fostering collaborative efforts with FTA and MSP partners to ensure the success of mining projects. Furthermore, the study includes suggestions for how mining projects can prevent conflict with local communities by ensuring that projects benefit local economies, minimize environmental impacts, and maintain strong relationships with local stakeholders. In the long term, innovation of battery chemistries that use less or no critical materials is also a key strategy. Future analysis could expand the scope of this study to evaluate processing and refining capacity, or to examine potential shifts in trade flows based on project-level off -take agreements that have already been secured. Other areas of further study include assessing potential impacts of market reforms pursued in multilateral fora (including the emerging mineral security program among members of the International Energy Agency); evaluating MSP projects outside MSP countries’ borders; incorporating sensitivities to account for uncertainties; developing supply curves for all U.S. mines to assess the economic competitiveness of the U.S. in mining critical materials; and analyzing international demand projections.
