Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026
Federal Climate Rollback Raises Stakes for New Mexico Legislature to Pass the Clear Horizons Act
Rescinding the Endangerment Finding will harm millions of New Mexicans who live through climate impacts each year.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – As the Trump administration moves to rescind the Environmental Protection Agency’s Endangerment Finding, New Mexico lawmakers face an urgent decision of their own. With federal climate protections being dismantled, the Clear Horizons Act (SB18) represents the state’s best opportunity to ensure long-term planning, protect families from rising costs driven by extreme weather and harmful pollution, and hold major polluters accountable here at home. SB18 will be heard on the Senate floor in the coming hours.
By rescinding the EPA’s Endangerment Finding, which eliminates the agency’s requirement to protect people from the pollution that causes climate change, Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is removing its responsibility to regulate the pollution that causes climate change – a move that increases risk for states like New Mexico, where wildfire, extended drought, low snow pack, extreme heat, and flooding are already straining household budgets and state finances. Legislative interim committees in 2025 heard presentations that these impacts are costing families, communities and the state more than $4 billion.
“New Mexicans cannot afford to wait for Washington,” said Camilla Feibelman, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director. “The risks are here now. Passing the Clear Horizons Act is how our Legislature ensures that families, farmers, small businesses, and communities are protected regardless of what happens at the federal level.”
In the absence of strong federal safeguards, state leadership becomes even more critical. The Clear Horizons Act provides New Mexico with a transparent, long-term framework to reduce harmful pollution from large industrial sources and manage the economic risks associated with climate instability. Unlike shifting federal policy, SB18 locks in predictability and accountability for communities and businesses alike.
Recent statewide polling shows that 77% of New Mexicans support government action to reduce climate pollution, reflecting broad public support for long-term planning to protect health, affordability, and economic stability.
By claiming climate change – and the pollution that causes it – pose no threat to public health or the environment, Trump and Zeldin are defying mountains of scientific evidence produced in thousands of studies that demonstrate how climate change, fueled by climate pollution, is causing devastating impacts on people’s lives.
Sixteen years ago, the EPA found that carbon pollution, methane, and four other climate pollutants endanger public health, a finding endorsed by both the Supreme Court and by Congress under the Clean Air Act. Trump and Zeldin are ignoring science and the law to hasten their plans to undo pollution limits for power plants, cars, trucks, and other sources of climate pollution.
Trump and Zeldin’s Polluters First Agenda will accelerate the climate crisis, leaving millions of Americans more vulnerable to deadly extreme weather. Health impacts from climate change are already evident: increased asthma attacks and heat-related deaths are becoming more frequent and severe.
Trump shamelessly begged the fossil fuel industry for $1 billion to fund his 2024 campaign and in return he promised to do their bidding. Rescinding this bedrock environmental finding is a win for the fossil fuel industry and a terrible loss for working people.
“Rolling back federal climate protections shifts the costs of pollution onto families and communities,” said Tom Solomon, co-coordinator of 350.org New Mexico. “That’s not what New Mexicans voted for. Families are already stretched thin, and weakening safeguards only increases the risks and expenses they face. The Clear Horizons Act is how New Mexico can protect itself.”
The Clear Horizons Act is supported by a broad coalition of 42 organizations, healthcare professionals, parents, business leaders, and community advocates from across New Mexico who agree that families deserve stability, clean air, and a future they can count on. Coalition members: 350 New Mexico; 350 Santa Fe; American Lung Association in New Mexico; Center for Civic Policy; Citizens Caring for the Future; Climate Cabinet; Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy; Coalition of Sustainable Communities New Mexico; Conservation Voters New Mexico; Devil’s Spring Ranch; Earthworks; E2; EDF Action; Equality New Mexico; GreenLatinos; GRID Alternatives; Healthy Climate New Mexico; Moms Clean Air Force – New Mexico Chapter; Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); New Mexico & El Paso Interfaith Power and Light; New Mexico Climate Investment Center; NM Native Vote; New Mexico Sustainable Business; New Mexico Voices for Children; NM CAFe; NMVC Action Fund; OLÉ Education Fund, Positive Energy Solar; ProgressNow New Mexico; Prosperity Works; Renewable Energy Industries Association of New Mexico; San Juan Citizens Alliance; Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter; Sovereign Energy; Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP); The Semilla Project; Together for Brothers; Tribal Energy Alternatives; Vote Solar; Western Environmental Law Center; Western Leaders Network; Western Resource Advocates.
ABOUT THE ENDANGERMENT FINDING
The Clean Air Act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect people from “any air pollutant from any class or classes of new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines” that the agency deems “causes or contributes to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
In the 2007 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Massachusetts vs. EPA, the court found that carbon pollution and other climate-warming pollutants (greenhouse gases) are “air pollutants” as defined by the Clean Air Act. The court directed the EPA to make a final scientific determination whether emissions of these pollutants from new motor vehicles endanger health or welfare.
In 2009, the EPA determined that carbon dioxide, methane, and four other climate pollutants do endanger public health, and that emissions from cars and trucks contribute to that danger. Over the years, EPA has repeatedly reaffirmed that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public and that pollution from power plants, oil and gas operations, and other sources contribute to that danger. The EPA’s Endangerment Finding was challenged in court by big oil and gas companies, fossil fuel producers, radical right-wing front groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and red-state political figures. The D.C. Circuit of Appeals upheld the finding based on the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting it. The Supreme Court denied an additional review.
Later Supreme Court decisions have limited the scope of some of EPA’s climate protections. But none of those decisions undermined the original basis for the Endangerment Finding and the EPA’s duty to act under the law.
Read More about the Endangerment Finding from NRDC’s David Doniger HERE and EDF’s Peter Zalzal HERE.