The Western Environmental Law Center is encouraged and optimistic that the New Mexico legislature is considering a range of strong bills to safeguard our rich natural resources and climate, leverage the state’s power to protect water quality to account for federal clean water rollbacks, and promote a more diverse and resilient economy. Others are boondoggles and tax giveaways to the wealthy oil and gas industry. Here is where we stand on a few important bills: 

  • WELC SUPPORTS: The Clear Horizons Act (SB 4), and the associated Community Benefits Fund (SB 48, SB 49) and Innovation in Government Fund (SB 83), introduced by Senate Pro Tem Stewart and supported prominently by Gov. Lujan Grisham in her State of the State address. The Clear Horizons Act would codify into law statewide greenhouse gas emissions limits in Executive Order 2019-003. It would require meaningful climate pollution reductions by 2030, further progress by 2040, and a 100% reduction of climate pollution relative to 2005 emission levels by 2050. Codifying these climate protections in law would prevent future administrations from unilaterally rolling them back. The bill would also require an annual state report quantifying greenhouse gas pollution and evaluating progress toward meeting the goals. The Community Benefits Fund would allocate $340 million to fund advance clean energy technologies, improve public school facilities, boost economic development, and provide job training. The Innovation in Government Fund would provide $10 million to state agencies to support efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
    • “We applaud Senate Pro Tem Stewart and her team for crafting such a thoughtful approach to climate and just transition action in New Mexico,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center. “These bills position New Mexico to open new doors to a thriving, resilient future where our state is a leader in the fight against the climate crisis, better protects its rich natural heritage, and actively builds a strong, diversified economy powered by renewable energy.”
  • WELC SUPPORTS: Clean water protection bills SB 22 and SB 21. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling, Sackett v. EPA, that severely limited the scope of protections under the Clean Water Act. As a result, an estimated 95% of New Mexico’s waterways are vulnerable to discharges of pollutants—discharges that had been regulated for 50 years. New Mexico waters are left particularly vulnerable because the state does not have a surface water permitting program to protect these waters—no longer protected under the Clean Water Act—against discharges of contaminants. In addition, New Mexico is one of only three states nationwide that does not have authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue federal permits. As a result of all this, American Rivers named all New Mexico rivers atop its list of the most endangered rivers in the country in its 2024 Most Endangered Rivers report.

 SB 22 will create a permitting program to safeguard state waters that are not federally protected. SB 21 will give the state authority to take over permitting from EPA for waters that remain federally protected, streamlining the process for permit applicants. And like the existing federal protections, traditional farming and ranching activities, including acequia operations, will be exempt from the new state permitting program.

    • “New Mexico’s most precious resources are our streams, lakes, and wetlands. But this scarce resource is under singular attack,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney with Western Environmental Law Center. “These two bills will establish the necessary framework to protect our waters from pollution, and protect New Mexico’s communities, acequias, Tribal waters, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation economy now and for the future.”
  • WELC OPPOSES: The Strategic Water Supply Act (HB 137). This would be a giveaway to the oil and gas industry of up to $75 million in taxpayer money annually to build treatment plants and purchase toxic oil and gas wastewater (“produced water”). Its aim is to fund, through grants and contracts, the construction of treatment plants for industry and purchase the treated wastewater with no limitations on its use. The waste could be used for industrial purposes, drinking water, agriculture, and other uses. However, there is no consensus within the scientific community that current treatment technologies are up to the task of cleaning toxic oil and gas wastewater to meet water quality standards to protect human health and the environment.
    • “The Strategic Water Supply Act would give away up to $75 million of New Mexico taxpayers’ hard-earned money every year to subsidize a prosperous industry to address a human health and environmental problem of its own creation,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “The cost to properly treat and dispose of produced water should be borne by private industry, not the New Mexico public.” 
  • WELC SUPPORTS: Modernizing oil and gas royalty rates on state lands (SB 23). State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard has wisely advocated for modernizing oil and gas royalties at the State Land Office for years. This change would raise rates from 20% to 25%, matching the private land royalty rates in Texas, with which New Mexico shares the Permian Basin. The change would raise millions more dollars each year and $1-2 billion overall for New Mexico’s public schools and other institutions.
    • “Allowing oil and gas companies to pollute New Mexico for at a discount while shortchanging our state institutions that rely on these funds is yet another established state giveaway to Big Oil,” said Kyle Tisdel, Climate and Energy Program director at the Western Environmental Law Center. “The time is right this session to make this needed correction.”
  • WELC SUPPORTS: Providing clear direction to protect public health and the environment (HB 34). This bill would amend the 1935 Oil and Gas Act by explicitly directing the Oil Conservation Division, in overseeing oil and gas production, to protect public health and the environment.
    • “We hope the legislature takes up the opportunity to definitively state that the Oil and Gas Act in fact requires the Oil Conservation Divison to protect public health and the environment,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director at the Western Environmental Law Center. “While more expansive reform is very much needed, this is good step in the right direction.”
  • WELC SUPPORTS: Children’s Health Protection Zones (HB 35). This bill would, amongst other things, prohibit new oil and gas operations within 5280 feet from the property line of a school, allowing variances in very limited circumstances. The bill would also require oil and gas operators to identify existing equipment within the health protection zones and prepare an alarm and leak detection and response plan. Other elements of the bill would require operators to complete water quality sampling, suspend operations within the health protection zones that are not complying with air quality act, and adjust civil penalties.
    • “Protecting our schools from the harms caused by oil and gas production with health protection zones is an imperative,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director at the Western Environmental Law Center. “We strongly support this provision and, in concept, support the bill’s other provisions, even as we continue to evaluate these provisions’ technical aspects.”
  • WELC SUPPORTS: $1.5 million for beaver conservation in the Department of Game and Fish Department’s general appropriation (HB 2). Rep. Small added this funding to aid in conservation and coexistence measures to boost beaver populations in the state. Beavers are nature’s engineers, creating wildfire refugia for fish and wildlife, helping protect clean water, and aiding in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
    • “Beavers are part of natural climate solutions, creating flourishing habitats for fish and wildlife to thrive, clean up water resources, and help landscapes weather wildfires and drought,” said Sristi Kamal, deputy director of the Western Environmental Law Center. “It is time to change the narrative about this species—from a pest to a climate ally. This modest funding can go a long way to promoting coexistence and increasing beavers’ presence in New Mexico.”
  • WELC SUPPORTS: Game Commission Reform (SB 5) to improve the Game Commission appointment process, set term limits for commissioners, add requirements for appointment and removal of commissioners, create a State Wildlife Commission nominating committee, and reframe the Department of Game and Fish as the Department of Wildlife, and rename the Game Commission as the Wildlife Commission, among other considerations.
    • “New Mexico’s fish and wildlife should be led by a commission that prioritizes best available science and is rooted in conservation of all species and habitats they are entrusted to protect, and not just the ones that are hunted or fished,” said Sristi Kamal, deputy director of the Western Environmental Law Center. “A Commission that is reflective of New Mexico’s demography as well as conservation values will benefit all fish and wildlife and the critical ecosystem services and ecological resilience they provide to all new Mexicans.”

WELC will provide its position and analysis on other bills as time and need permits.

Contacts:

Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, 575-770-1295, gro.w1739461785alnre1739461785tsew@1739461785gskir1739461785e1739461785 

Kyle Tisdel, 575-770-7501, gro.w1739461785alnre1739461785tsew@1739461785ledsi1739461785t1739461785 

Tannis Fox, 505-629-0732, gro.w1739461785alnre1739461785tsew@1739461785xof1739461785 

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