The following are the state and local candidates who have been endorsed by the Chapter and who have opponents in the June primary. Endorsements of candidates who have no primary opponent will be disclosed at a later date. Be sure to vote on June 2.

Find your district here | Volunteer | Donate | Voter info

NM House

HD 4, San Juan – Joseph Hernandez WIN
Rep. Joseph Hernandez was an ally of the Chapter even before he ran for his State House seat. In his first term, he sponsored  the Green Amendment; a bill that created the Solar Access Fund within the NM Finance Authority to provide money to local governments for solar projects; and a bill to fund the cleanup of contaminated sites, including uranium mining sites.

HD 13, Bernalillo – Patricia Roybal Cabellero WIN
Long-time Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero has sponsored an impressively long list of important environmental bills, including the Community Solar Act, the Energy Transition Act, the Green Amendment, various geothermal and solar tax credit bills, and bills prevent New Mexico from becoming a nuclear dumping ground. She is especially interested in bills addressing environmental justice.

HD 14, Bernalillo – Miguel Garcia WIN
Rep. Miguel Garcia has a 97% lifetime environmental voting record according to the most recent Conservation Voters NM scorecard. While being laser-focused on bills to hep his community, he is a legislator that we know we can always count on to vote to protect the environment.

HD 16, Bernalillo – Yanira Gurrola WIN
Rep. Yanira Gurrola Valenzuela advocated for environmental sustainability, clean energy and other climate solutions to protect our natural resources and combat climate change. She sponsored legislation promoting electric school buses, clean car tax credits, and water reuse requirements. She is committed to continuing to work on issues of water and climate.

HC 24, Bernalillo – Elizabeth Thomson WIN
Rep. Liz Thomson has been rock-solid supporter of environmental and other progressive legislation during her fourteen hears in the State House. As a pediatric physical therapist and the mother of an autistic son, Rep. Thomson has focused on providing healthcare and opportunities for children, especially those with disabilities

HD 30, Bernalillo – E. Diane Torres-Velasquez WIN
Rep. E. Diane Torres-Velásquez has a PhD in education and has worked with grassroots groups to establish public education as a fundamental right in New Mexico and to make sure that there was an equitable distribution of education resources. While the focus of her legislative work has also been education, she has been a steadfast supporter of the Chapter’s environmental priorities.

HD 33, Doña Ana – Micaela Lara Cadena WIN
Micaela Cadena serves the Mesilla, NM area where she was born.  She has helped lead the fight against Project Jupiter.  Cadena championed the decriminalisation of abortion in 2021.  She is the vice chair of the House Tax and Revenue committee helping ensure progressive tax policy and advocating for policies like ensuring a used electric vehicle tax credit.  

HD 34 Doña Ana – Raymundo Lara WIN
Ray Lara is the chair of the House Democratic Caucus. He has sponsored bills addressing critical matters such as voting rights and clean fuels.

HD 37, Dona Ana County – Lori Martinez WIN
Lori Martinez is the Executive Director of Ngage New Mexico, an education nonprofit. She will bring her expertise in education and mental health to the House as she works to fill gaps in services by creating new programs and opportunities, advocating for healthcare initiatives, including Paid Family Leave, and drafting legislature to restrict private-equity control of hospitals, energy and data centers.

HD 40, multiple NE counties – Nancy Wright LOSS
Nancy Wright is a pediatrician with a master’s degree in public health who understands the intersection of the environment and health. As a legislator, she want to address global warming, environmental toxins, and green space, which she emphasizes is important to children.

HD 41, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe, Taos Counties – Yolanda Jaramillo WIN
Yolanda “Pancha” Jaramillo is a retired educator and behavioral health advocate who is an acequia leader in her community and an advocate for acequias. She serves on the board of the NM Acequia Association and as an appointed member of the NM Acequia Commission. Yolanda says says she is “all about clean water.”

HD 69, NW & Central counties – Michelle Paulene Abeyta WIN
Rep. Paulene Abeyta’s indigenous culture has nurtured in her a deep understanding of our connection to the natural world and the importance of protecting it. Her work in her first legislative term has focused on children, healthcare, and tribal issue while at the same time supporting our environmental issues, including sponsoring a bill to clean up uranium and other contaminated sites.

District 70, San Miguel & Torrance counties – Anita Gonzales WIN
Representative Anita Gonzales has been a leader on healthcare, education and the environment. She represents her District through advancing rural development and public education and continuing the fight for remediation of the impacts of of the 2022 Calf/Hermit fire. Committed to protecting Northern New Mexico’s environment and culture, she champions water rights, land stewardship, and community traditions.

State-wide races

Governor – Deb Haaland WIN
The Chapter is proud to endorse Deb Haaland for governor. She formerly served as the congressperson from New Mexico’s first congressional district and as Secretary of the Interior in the Biden administration. She was one of the first two native women to be elected to serve in congress, and she was the first native cabinet secretary. If elected, she would be the nation’s first native governor.

Secretary Haaland pairs the deep-rooted values of her native heritage with a clear, actionable climate agenda. As Secretary of the Interior, she reduced methane waste on federal and tribal lands, accelerated permitting for clean energy projects, and launched large-scale orphaned well remediation—cutting emissions while creating jobs.

Deb Haaland embodies the values that the Chapter looks for in a governor: respect for the land, responsibility to future generations, and courage in the face of injustice. Her life and career reflect a deep belief that our environment is not a commodity, but a sacred trust. And she understands that environmental stewardship is inseparable from protecting families, water, and livelihoods. She is committed to ensuring that no community is left behind.

As governor, Sec. Haaland will commit New Mexico to net-zero emissions by 2050, fully implement the Clean Cars and Trucks standards, modernize building codes for energy efficiency, use the state’s purchasing power to expand renewable energy markets, and place New Mexico on a path to a sustainable water future. For all of these reasons, Deb Haaland is our choice for governor!

Commission of Public Lands – Matthew McQueen LOSS
The Chapter endorses Rep. Matthew McQueen for Commissioner of Public Lands. The Land Commissioner leads a department that oversees our nine million surface acres of state lands, including special places for outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat and lands that earn billions of dollars to support our public schools, universities, and hospitals.

Rep. McQueen has served for twelve years in the State House of Representatives, ten of those as chair of the House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources Committee. During his  time in the Legislature, Rep. McQueen has been one of our go-to legislators to sponsor environmental legislation, and he has successfully shepherded many of our bills into law. Rep. McQueen will bring deep policy expertise, legislative leadership, and a lifelong commitment to conservation as Land Commissioner.

Among his many accomplishments, Rep. McQueen has held the oil and gas companies accountable by restoring the state’s ability to levy fines and penalties on bad actors and by raising the royalty rate in the Permian Basin. He has fought to protect our natural resources, such as the Gila River, and he led efforts to prevent the storage of high-level nuclear waste in our state. Last year, he worked with a broad coalition of stakeholders to successfully reform our Department of Game Fish into a modern Department of Wildlife, and he was instrumental in enacting a ban on cruel trapping on state public lands. In his professional career as an attorney, Rep. McQueen has specialized in land conservation.

Rep. McQueen recognizes the urgency of diversifying projects on public lands toward renewable energy, and he will expand leases for wind, solar, and battery storage projects on State Trust Lands as part of the Land Office mission of ensuring fair returns for New Mexico schools and beneficiaries.

He worked to block Holtec’s proposed temporary nuclear waste storage facility; engaged in wildfire prevention strategies; and recognized the urgency of proactive land management in a changing climate.

Finally, McQueen approaches economic development with a clear-eyed commitment to accountability. Whether evaluating large-scale data center proposals, carbon sequestration initiatives, or energy leases, he insists on strong safeguards, fair returns, and long-term benefits for New Mexicans—not short-term gains for outside interests.

Secretary of State – Amanda López Askin WIN
Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin was raised in Las Cruces by a mother who had “the Spanish spanked out of her” and as a result, became an advocate for voting rights in order to get “a seat at the table of democracy.” López Askin inherited that passion, and after a PhD and a career as a therapist and teacher, applied for and was appointed as Doña Ana County Clerk when a vacancy arose in 2018. She was reelected in 2022.

López Askin was appointed as Clerk five days before the 2018 election and was immediately confronted by falsehoods and election-denial in the close Torres Small-Herrell congressional election that year. She emphasizes that her experience with election-denial, disruption, personal attacks, and threats throughout her tenure as Doña Ana County Clerk has prepared her to be a steady hand to guide the state through the polarized elections we are facing in the future.

As an hispanic woman, López Askin understands the fear and intimidation that some communities experience when federal law enforcement officers are present in the community on election day, which she has seen firsthand in southern New Mexico, and will do everything she can to ensure that it does not occur.

County races

Bernalillo County Commission, District 5 – Eric Olivas WIN
Commissioner Eric Olivas has been an environmental champion on the County Commission. He recently sponsored a bill that imposes renewable energy, water-use offset, and labor requirements on any data centers built in the county.

Doña Ana County Commission, District 1 – Daisy Maldonado WIN
Daisy Maldonado is a grassroots leader and community organizer who has spent more than a decade advocating for environmental justice for the people of Doña Ana County. Most recently, she has led the charge against the Project Jupiter data center, a sprawling project that has proposed to emit more pollution than the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined while greatly taxing the area’s scarce water resources. Daisy also served on the Sustainable Economy Advisory Council to help envision the state’s transition away from extractive industry reliance.

Santa Fe County Commission District 1 – Henry Roybal WIN
We are proud to once again endorse Henry Roybal as our choice for Santa Fe County Commissioner, Dist. 1. A life-long resident of the Pojoaque Valley, Commissioner Roybal was first elected to the Santa Fe County Commissioner in 2015. He won a second term in January 2019. He has proven himself a true friend on the issues that matter most to Sierra Club members, in particular, balancing stewardship of the land and its natural resources with economic development.

Click here for a formatted endorsement guide from the Rio Grande Sierran. 

Would you take some time to fill out the survey below to indicate where and how you’d like to participate during the session and the lead up to it? Here is a quick reference calendar of events:

February 20: Lands, Water and Wildlife Day at the Legislature
March 6: Climate Crisis Day at the Legislature
Tuesdays & Thursdays: NM Climate Corps Zoom Trainings on Specific Bills

Let us know if you have any questions!

Note – you may have to scroll to get to the bottom of the form.

Would you take some time to fill out the survey below to indicate where and how you’d like to participate during the session and the lead up to it? Here is a quick reference calendar of events:

January 11: Climate Corps: Session launch (virtual, noon)
January 11: In-person lobby training (Las Cruces, Albuquerque, 6pm)
January 15: Climate Summit in Santa Fe (in Person, 10am-noon)
January 16: Session starts (noon)
February 8: Climate Corps: Environment Day Prep (virtual, noon)
February 9: Environment Day (in person, 8am-3pm)
February 15: Last day of the session, possible Climate Corps

Let us know if you have any questions!

Note – you may have to scroll to get to the bottom of the form.

Today, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed every remaining significant climate-protecting measure the Legislature passed in 2023. In response, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman issued the following statement:

“The five credits for electric vehicles, energy storage, and geothermal development would have made some progress in preventing climate disaster, as would the geothermal center of excellence and fund, which could also be a significant economic-development tool for New Mexico. We are facing a climate emergency that requires emergency action, not vetoes.

“More than 1,000 people called or wrote to urge the governor to pass Game Commission reform, climate tax credits, expanded litter reduction and recycling efforts and a plan for geothermal development. None of them were signed into law.

“New Mexicans understand the critical need for climate solutions for ourselves and our families, especially after last year’s devastating fires and floods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us we should be sprinting when it comes to climate action, and we’re crawling. Vetoing the only progress we made in this session is turning us around and moving us in the wrong direction.”

The climate tax credits would have amounted to a drop in the bucket of New Mexico’s budget, and almost all are short-term and sunset in five years but would have made climate-protecting technologies much mboosted emerging industries. Below is a summary:

HB412/SB22: Credits to purchase or lease electric vehicles of $2,500, or $4,000 for lower-income New Mexicans. The credit is transferable to be taken off the price of the car and refundable. EVs save New Mexicans an estimated $2,400-$3,000 a year in fuel costs. With federal credits and state credits, lower-priced EVs like the Chevrolet Bolt would cost much less than the average used car, resulting in much lower monthly payouts. There was $10 million a year appropriated for this credit.

HB32: Tax credits for New Mexicans who invest in energy storage systems for their homes and/or businesses. Home storage protects against blackouts, supports our electric grid and lowers utility costs for all customers.

SB173: Credits for geothermal electricity production. Geothermal is reliable 24/7 baseload power that is renewable and has a small physical footprint. New Mexico is sixth in the nation for geothermal potential. There was $4 million a year appropriated for this credit.

SB45: Credits for efficient ground-source heat pumps, which are efficient and money-saving ways for New Mexicans to electrify. This type of initiative is needed if we are to transition from gas use as scientists say we must by 2050.

HB67: Provides a gross-receipts tax deduction for sales to governments on energy-storage systems.

The other bills that remained unsigned today were:

HB365: Geothermal Center & Fund (Ortiz y Pino, Ferrary, Lujan, Sariñana, Roybal Caballero): Geothermal is a renewable, 24/7 energy resource, and New Mexico is sixth in the nation in geothermal potential. This bill funds a geothermal resource center at NM Tech and offers funding to further develop geothermal resources in New Mexico.

HB184, Game Commission Appointment process, broadening and diversifying commission membership. The state Game Commission, a seven-member board appointed by the governor, has been in disarray for years. HB184, reforming the commission, passed both chambers with significant bipartisan support. A number of groups with very diverse wildlife views emerged to support the bill in committee hearings, reflecting the dire need for reform.

SB182, Recycling and Litter Reduction, restoring the Recycling and Waste Coordinator at the Environment Department. This legislation would have given the Tourism Department more flexibility in how they conduct their outreach/education efforts for anti-litter.  It would have created a new FTE in the New Mexico Environment Department that can work to promote goals outlined in the NM Solid Waste Bureau’s Solid Waste Management Plan and it is funded through an existing fund.

Contact: Camilla Feibelman, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director.Camilla.feibelman@sierraclub.org, (505) 715-8388

Photo of youth rallying for climate action at Roundhouse Climate Justice Day by David McGahey

It is no secret that New Mexico is in a water crisis. In fact, the whole Southwest is in the driest two decades it has seen in at least 1,200 years. And the hard truth is climate projections tell us conditions will only get more challenging from here. We can expect temperatures to increase 5-7 °F over the next 50 years, with a 25% decrease in our overall water supply, increasing demand and competition across the state for this precious resource even as it slips through our fingers.

The Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force is tackling these challenges head on. Established by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham over the summer and led by New Mexico’s State Engineer, the Task Force has brought together a diverse array of members to identify solutions that have broad consensus to some of our toughest water challenges.

The Task Force appointees, called Water Ambassadors, are New Mexicans from all sectors: natural resource agencies, industry representatives, agricultural producers, acequia leadership, Tribes and Pueblos, environmental organizations, and more. Together they have worked hard to develop 17 recommendations with more than 100 associated actions that will make our state significantly more climate-resilient.

We’ll see some of these recommendations take shape in the 2023 legislative session. A few you’ve already heard of, like adding funding and capacity for the Strategic Water Reserve, a pool of publicly held water rights that can be deployed to meet our obligations through interstate compacts or for the benefit of imperiled species. Some may be new, like rethinking our regional water-planning process and funding a surface water quality permitting program. All will help New Mexico build a more secure and equitable water future through unprecedented challenges.

The Task Force was initially envisioned to be a one-time convening during the summer and fall of 2022. But given what this diverse group of experts has produced, it is becoming increasingly clear that to not reconvene on a regular basis would be a serious waste of the social infrastructure the effort has built. Water in the American West is always a technically complex and socially contentious issue, and yet this group of New Mexicans, with very different perspectives, goals, priorities, and expertise, has managed to come together and develop a long list of workable solutions that represents years of work to implement but will protect our ecosystems and communities.

We encourage you to engage with the Sierra Club over the 2023 legislative session to support these recommendations moving forward and to talk to your legislators about the need for the important work of the Water Ambassadors to continue, at least until their long list of solutions are implemented.

Featured image by Pablo Tashjian via Flickr

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was coming back home after a busy legislative session in February, and now, everything is ramping back up again. We have an opportunity to make real change for our planet, the climate and our communities in New Mexico.

This year is a “long” 60-day legislative session starting Jan. 17, and there will be many exciting opportunities for Sierra Club members to provide input and participate (sometimes late into the night!) in the process. Below are a few of the bills we are expecting and will be advocating for or against in the next session:

CLIMATE & ENERGY

Climate Solutions and Just Transition:
This legislation will put into law aspects of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Executive Order on Climate Change and create a comprehensive framework for addressing climate change in New Mexico. Building on the Energy Transition Act, which focuses on the electricity sector, the Climate Action Act will likely require a 50% reduction in greenhouse-gas pollution across all economic sectors by 2030 and a 90% reduction by 2050. It grants broad authority to all state agencies to implement the rules necessary to achieve the reduction targets and protect against climate damage.

The bill also establishes a consultation requirement for overburdened communities and Tribal nations and creates a Just Transition Office to coordinate financial resources and government programs to support economic transition of communities most impacted by fossil-fuel pollution and production. It also creates a Resiliency Office and a Climate Crisis Infrastructure Fund to address climate-related emergencies and codifies state policy vehicles to ensure efficient allocation of federal Inflation Reduction Act dollars for energy efficiency, methane reduction programs, environmental-justice block grants, and clean cars and trucks.

Oil and Gas Reform
Legislation will likely be introduced to reform and modernize the 1935 Oil and Gas Act to reflect the public interests at stake today. When the Oil and Gas Act was enacted more than 85 years ago, development of oil and gas resources was the only public interest at that time. Today, we know that oil and gas development is a major contributor to the climate crisis, creates serious health risks from air pollutants; and disproportionately harms frontline communities.

It’s long past time the act was updated to take account of all interests. The New Mexico Oil and Gas Justice and Reform Act will expand the duties and authorities of the Oil Conservation Commission and Oil Conservation Division to include protection of the environment, protection of public health, and meaningful involvement of all the public — especially communities of color, low-income communities, and tribal and indigenous communities who bear the brunt of oil and gas operations. The proposed reform Act will also expand and diversify the composition of the three-member Oil Conservation Commission, charged with making statewide rules, to include two additional members appointed by the Legislature.

Low Income Utility Rates Legislation
This bill will require electric and gas utilities to provide a low-income rate. The goal is to bring the average low-income user to a energy burden of 5% or less. 19 other states already offer a low-income rate.

Climate Investment Center
Creates legislation recognizing a statewide Climate Investment Fund (“green bank”) as an independent nonprofit organization that is an investment vehicle for sustainable energy, water, and transportation projects. The bank would be the landing spot for federal green-bank funds that were established in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Appliance Efficiency Standards
This bill would set minimum energy and water efficiency standards for certain household and commercial appliance products. Designed to create utility bill savings for both individuals and businesses.

Climate Tax Credits
Bills that would encourage the development of geothermal resources, home energy storage, ground source heat pumps and the purchase of EVs and charging units will be a priority this session.

LANDS, WATER & WILDLIFE

Conservation Fund
Establishes a new conservation fund to help protect New Mexico’s communities from the threat of wildfire, flood, and drought while growing the outdoor economy in rural and urban areas. State investments must be made in the 2023 session to unlock millions of dollars in federal support. Federal Inflation Reduction Act funds cannot flow through to New Mexico without a substantial state fund or consistent conservation investment. Over $3 billion is available nationally in the IRA for forest health, wildfire resilience, river and watershed restoration, and conservation.

Strategic Water Reserve
This bill would provide $25 million to the Strategic Water Reserve. Additional capacity at the Interstate Stream Commission, the agency that oversees the Reserve, of at least one staff member dedicated to planning and implementing this important climate resiliency tool is still needed. The Reserve, created by the Legislature in 2005, is a pool of publicly held water rights dedicated to 1) ensuring New Mexico can meet commitments in our interstate river compacts and 2) assisting New Mexico protect threatened and endangered fish and wildlife, including habitat restoration work. The Strategic Water Reserve is an important tool that can be employed in sustaining environmental flows to our rivers to ensure sustainable and climate-resilient water systems that meet the needs of all water users. A key component of supporting these efforts is adequate and consistent funding and ensuring dedicated agency capacity for implementation.

Water Governance Reform and Climate Resiliency
See separate article on the Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force.

Wildlife Reform Bill
Senator Steinborn will be sponsoring a bill to modernize the statutory language encompassing the Department of Game and Fish so that the scope of the agency’s mission can broaden to better further wildlife conservation in our challenging time of species declines.”

New Mexico Reforestation Center Act
This bill would create the New Mexico Reforestation Center to address the impacts of climate change on the state’s forests, establish a funding account and make an appropriation.

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Prevent Temporary Storage of High-Level Nuclear Waste
The bill proposes to ban the storage or disposal of high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico, unless preempted by federal law, just as Texas, Oregon and other states have done.
See article, Page xx9.

Environmental Rights (Green) Constitutional Amendment
This proposed amendment to the New Mexico Constitution adds a new section to the Bill of Rights recognizing a healthy environment as an inherent and generational right of New Mexicans. If passed by the Legislature and approved by voters, government officials would be required to prioritize environmental protection when advancing energy policy, considering development, and crafting and implementing legislation and regulations.

Plastic Pollution Reduction Act
This bill addresses single-use disposable plastics, which break down and contaminate New Mexico’s land and water. It would end distribution of single-use plastic bags at point of sale with a 10-cent fee for paper bags as a funding mechanism for local communities to support recycling and education.

Banning of Neonicitinoids
This bill would reduce the use of neonics in as many places as possible while not completely banning it. Neonics have been found to be extremely toxic to pollinators – especially to bees. Bees and other pollinators are responsible for an estimated one out of every three bites of food! The bill would include an education program to help farmers and backyard gardeners adopt best practices to avoid adverse impacts and help our pollinators – and us – thrive!

DEMOCRACY

Reform of New Mexico Legislature
A proposed Amendment to provisions of the 1912 New Mexico Constitution. Increase the duration of legislative sessions from today’s alternating 30-day and 60-day sessions, to 60-day sessions each year and an option for a 10 day extension, with a goal of improved quality and efficiency by allowing additional time to propose, address and improve legislation. It would provide a salary for legislators, increasing the opportunity for all New Mexicans to become legislators and expanding the diversity of those elected. It authorizes year-long and permanent staff for each legislator. Outside of the sessions, staff could provide greater services, support and availability to constituents.

Voting Rights
New Mexico, thanks to our Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, continues to increase access to voting. Though comprehensive voting reforms didn’t pass last session, legislation will return this session.

Featured image, 2017 by Allyson Siwik

This is a complex moment for legislative transformation. On the one hand, New Mexicans are clearly communicating their desire for big, bold change. We demonstrated that in the elections, creating a progressive state Senate to go with our progressive House.

On the other hand, despite the incredible opportunities of the moment, we don’t have a great sense of how the legislative process will take place. The House may limit legislators to five bills. The Senate may meet on the floor for a couple of days and then break out for virtual committee hearings for five days and then back for floor sessions. Legislators may hold office hours for constituents and advocates that will try not to conflict with committee times.

But given all that we’ve already navigated this year, maybe a virtual legislative session isn’t so bad. As a working mom, I enjoyed being able to participate during the summer special session and speak out, from home, in a committee at 11:30 p.m. in favor of expanded voting while folding the laundry.

We’ll need your support whether from the laundry room or the dining room on a host of environmental bills and other legislation to create equity and better quality of life for all New Mexicans. Our environmental community is working on legislation that will make a real difference for New Mexico. A carbon-reduction and climate-resilience bill being sponsored by Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Sen. Benny Shendo and Sen. Carrie Hamblen will tackle climate change by putting Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 2019 Executive Order on climate into law.

Stringency legislation, sponsored by Sen. Peter Wirth would allow state rules on air quality and hazardous waste to be stronger than federal limits. Just transition legislation from Rep. Angelica Rubio would help encourage and develop workforce solutions and diversification as we move away from fossil fuels. Community solar (Sen. Liz Stefanics, Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero) would allow renters and homeowners without roof access to buy into larger community solar gardens. The Sustainable Buildings Tax Credit would incentivize emissions reductions from buildings and require they be EV-ready.

We are hoping this is the year to pass a ban on trapping on public lands (see article at left). An Environmental Database Law (Sen. Mimi Stewart, Rep. Gail Chasey) would allow agencies and the public to find wildlife, leasing, and air-quality data all in a centralized location. A memorial  from Stansbury would create a framework for a 50-year water plan. The Green Amendment (Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Sen. Bill Soules, Rep. Joanne Ferrary) would create an actionable environmental protection in the Constitution, while Private Right of Action legislation (Rep. Georgene Louis) would allow impacted individuals to sue for environmental compliance. Another bill would raise penalty caps in an array of environmental sectors. Oil Conservation Commission reform would put the public interest at the heart of state oversight of extractive industries, and amendments to the Produced Water Act would increase protection for human health and freshwater. Other promising bills from Sen. Soules explore solar- and EV-ready buildings, regular updates of energy-efficient building codes, and a 100% electric state vehicle fleet. Another bill would provide relief for those who couldn’t pay their electric bills during the pandemic.

Thanks to all of the incredible bill sponsors and to the organizers working so hard to make them happen.

Every Sierra Club member knows the damage that the Trump administration has done to our environment in its four years. Indeed they are working feverishly up until Inauguration Day to continue inflicting harm.

There’s a lot President Biden will be able to do without going to Congress. New Mexicans are on the receiving end of many of Trump’s actions, such as the rollback of Obama-era methane rules, the attempt to eviscerate the Clean Water Act through regulatory action, the declaration of open season on migratory birds, the roll back of auto efficiency standards, the rushed leasing of federal lands,  and so much more. (The New York Times has kept a running list of the damage at www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html)

But, if there’s any good news about the Trump administration it must be that they were massively incompetent in pursuing the dismantlement of environmental regulation. Environmental lawyers have stopped many of these efforts, or held them up in courts, so that the new Administration can now reverse the legal positions of the Trump/Barr lawyers. Each of Trump’s actions has to be approached carefully, especially with a Supreme Court that we can presume to be hostile to environmental regulation.

The Biden administration will also need to rebuild the federal agencies that administer our environmental laws. EPA has lost scores of dedicated staff, because what professional would want to work for an administration that discredited science and discounted public health? Environmental justice will need to be at the heart of a rebuilt EPA. The Fish and Wildlife Service, The Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, NOAA, need to be rebuilt and shaped to meet the environmental challenges that we well understand.

Unfortunately, undoing the damage will only take us so far. If we are to really make progress on climate, for example, Congress needs to appropriate funding for new transportation infrastructure, including rail upgrades, enact bold legislation to reduce fossil fuel subsidies, provide for a just transition for workers and communities, and advance other initiatives that require legislation.

For this, President Biden will need to appeal to the slender House majority and will need the support of the Senate. That’s where we come in, of course, as we work through the Sierra Club and other organizations to flip those seats!

New Mexicans are getting whiplash watching the ups and downs of the oil industry. Obviously, the industry plays an important role contributing to our state’s budget, but it has also tied our state to a cycle of boom and bust while causing untold harms to people and the environment. The oil industry is in trouble, and the economic future of our state and the livability of our planet depend on our ability to manage that decline.

The industry is volatile, tied to international markets and economics that are entirely out of New Mexico’s hands. For example, the recent oil price collapse was the result of power plays from Russia and Saudi Arabia, with the pandemic exerting downward pressure on all energy consumption. The result in New Mexico was a state budget that suddenly plummeted from lost oil production.

We can no longer afford for oil and gas to dictate the terms of its operations, or allow our fears over lost revenues to prevent accountability and give the industry a pass to pollute. Precisely because the market for oil is international, any breaks we give industry will only exacerbate the harms to our state without making the slightest difference in how many new wells are drilled.

New Mexico has put itself into a box with its heavy reliance on oil and gas revenues — now approximately one-third of the state’s budget, a percentage that increased significantly after tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations were passed in 2003 and 2013. To be clear, the state’s economy is far broader than oil and gas, but we have failed to build a tax structure that is fair and resilient. In order to diversify our economy and build a just and equitable New Mexico we must hold Big Oil accountable. Revenues from oil and gas should be invested and used for limited projects rather than being put in the general fund.

The current volatility has also accelerated the environmental risks to our state. The oil and gas industry does not pay for new wells out of its pockets, but instead does so by borrowing huge sums of money. In the next few years alone, almost $200 billion of this debt will come due — just as the price of oil has collapsed.

At the same time, the oil and gas industry has not been saving for its retirement. Every new well that is drilled adds to a legacy of industrial pollution. In New Mexico alone, there exist almost 100,000 historic oil and gas wells, representing billions if not tens of billions in clean-up costs. As markets go bust and industry bankruptcies rise, those costs will get transferred to the state and its taxpayers … unless we hold industry accountable.

What do we need from state and federal officials?

The state must push forward with methane regulation. The damage that methane emissions do to our future cannot be tolerated—both because it is 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas pollutant, but also because of associated air pollutants and their impacts on our health. Thanks to the governor for standing firm. We expect to see draft rules for the public to comment on later this year. This is especially important since the EPA is on the brink of the final gutting of federal rules.

We must create a mandatory schedule for the plugging and abandonment of wells that are no longer producing — creating jobs and cleaning up a legacy of pollution on our landscapes — and tie any future permit approvals to a company’s compliance with this schedule and its environmental compliance.

We must also update bonding requirements, including full-cost bonding for all new permits and when permits are transferred from one company to another, as well as imposing  liability on all owners to create accountability throughout the chain of well ownership. This will ensure a funding mechanism to clean up industry’s mess in the event of bankruptcies or companies simply walking away.

At the federal level, we need the government to execute a 180 degree turn on oil and gas. In the short term, the prospect of abandoned oil wells has led to a helpful proposal from House Democrats to provide jobs for unemployed workers plugging wells and restoring lands. Another bill would raise federal bonding requirements.

We also need an immediate end to oil and gas leasing on public lands and a managed decline of production. Such bold action is needed to stay within warming thresholds and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.  New Mexico will need to broaden our economy and our tax base as this transition occurs.

The federal government must step forward with regulation and just transition funding, recognizing that some states are far too beholden to the industry to effectively regulate. A protective uniform base of federal regulation can allow some states to be more protective, while ensuring that national interests in climate change and federal lands are protected.

The time will come when the world has transitioned to renewable energy and New Mexicans will once again look out on quiet desert landscapes. We need to act now to ensure that these lands don’t look like something out of Mad Max.

Kyle is an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. 
Denise has been a Club member since 1975 and is Professor Emerita of Law at UNM, where she taught environmental law.