New Mexico Overview

History of the New Mexico Green Amendment to bring you up to speed:

2024

The New Mexico Green Amendment was  proposed and the subject of an informative, and at times contentious, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which New Mexico community members share, in clear and compelling testimony, why they needed the heightened protections of the constitution for ensuring their environmental rights.  But committee leaders tabled the proposal before communities got an opportunity to see where their government leaders really stood on the matter.  But a lot of information was learned about how the opposition was organizing a misinformation campaign behind the scenes that we are now well-poised to take on with facts and the truth.

2023

The New Mexico Green Amendment was once again proposed under the leadership of Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Representative Joanne Ferrary, with a growing list of cosponsors including Senator Shannon Pinto, Senator Harold Pope, Jr., Representative Tara Lujan, Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero and nearly 20 more. While the amendment did not make it all the way through the legislative process, it was the beneficiary of a robust hearing as well as a solid review by the Attorney General’s office demonstrating the amendment was not scary and in fact would be value added for state environmental protections.

2022

2022 marked a key year of growth for constitutional environmental rights recognition in New Mexico.

On January 5, 2022,  House Joint Resolution 02/Senate Joint Resolution 02 — a resolution to amend the New Mexico Constitution in order to add enforceable environmental rights — was introduced by Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Representative Joanne Ferrary.

New Mexicans made powerful progress during the 2022 thirty day legislative session.  After 2 well attended hearings the amendment passed the through the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee by majority vote.  While the amendment was ultimately tabled by the House Judiciary Committee  which rendered it unable to make it through the entire legislative process in 2022, the number of legislative supporters, organizational supporters and grassroots supporters swelled as the session progressed.

The NM Green Amendment was a featured item of discussion at the 2022 Walking 4 the Climate Rally held on MLK Day, which helped launch the legislative session. Weekly trainings, Q&A sessions, dissemination of  information sheets, and over 2,000 door hangers helped inform the conversation around advancing the Amendment.

Legislative champions Representative Joanne Ferrarry and Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez led the effort at the legislative level and were met with great support from colleagues.  The 30 day session is short and there is a lot to be accomplished.  All supporters knew it would be a high hurdle going into the session, but were tremendously pleased with the progress.  Over 50 New Mexico organizations signed on in support of the NM Green Amendment. And while in 2021 the New Mexico Green Amendment had 5 legislative sponsors, by the end of the 2022 legislative session the amendment secured support from 26 official sponsors including: Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Representative Joanne Ferrary, Senator Harold Pope, Jr., Senator Bill Soules, Senator Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics, Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino, Senator Carrie Hamblen, Representative Tara Lujan, Senator Shannon Pinto, Representative Debbie Sarinana,  Senator Linda Lopez, Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero, Senator Bill Tallman, Senator Jeff Steinborn, Representative Kay Bounkeua, Representative Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson, Representative Gail Chasey, Representative Miguel Garcia, Senator Roberto “Bobby” J. Gonzales, Senator Brenda McKenna, Senator Michael Padilla, Senator Nancy Rodriguez, Senator Benny Shendo, Representative Pamela Herndon, Representative Linda Serrato, and Representative Matthew McQueen.

NM Green Amendment legislative champions and supporters have already voiced their enthusiastic support to try again in 2023 when the session will be 60 days long and the NM Green Amendment will be starting from a hard-fought higher foundation of support.

Achieving a New Mexico Green Amendment is imminently doable. Upon securing just a majority vote in each of the legislative houses, the NM Green Amendment will be placed on the ballot for a vote of the people at the next election. While the Governor has the bully pulpit and could be using her voice in support, she does not have an official role in the constitutional amendment process.

2021

In the 2021 legislative session, a very similar amendment (only a few words difference) was the subject of a February 8, 2021 hearing and vote before the Senate Rules Committee who voted 7-4 in favor.  From there the amendment proceeded to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it unfortunately languished until the end of the legislative session because of the failure of Senator Cervantes to put it forth for hearing.

Not to be deterred, our legislative champions and growing coalition of organization supporters immediately started gearing up for the 2022 legislative session.  2023 education, outreach and organization is already underway.

National Green Amendments Movement

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