A coalition of climate advocacy organizations has filed a lawsuit against the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (Eminister), accusing it of failing to address "thousands of unplugged, inactive oil and gas wells and unremediated extraction sites" across the state. The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, San Juan Citizens Alliance, and the Diné-led water conservation nonprofit Tó Nizhóní Ání, alleges that unpluged oil & gas wells emit toxic pollutants long after they go offline and that state officials have failed to adequately close them off. The groups also allege that the state has failed to meet its obligations under the state Oil and Gas Act, which requires the Oil Conservation Division to ensure that oil companies plug wells once they're retired and also requires the state to charge companies for cleaning up abandoned wells. A 2025 Legislative Finance Committee report found that cleaning up these wells would cost the state $208 million and take nearly 10 years to complete, and future plugging of an identified 1,400 problematic wells could cost between $700 million and $1.6 billion.