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Critical Votes Ahead – Help Us Fight Back Against Big Oil & Protect Our Future!

zoeyyucraft
Feb 28

The Legislative Session is in full swing!

 

With just a few weeks left, we've been working hard to advance bold, meaningful climate and environmental justice legislation while fighting back against harmful false solutions.

 

Every day, we're pushing for policies that would prioritize our people and environment – protecting our communities, advancing a just transition to renewable energy, and holding polluters accountable for the damage they've caused. At the same time, we're going up against the oil and gas industry & their allies – and they're doing everything they can to stall our progress, protect their profit margins, and silence our voices.

 

That's why we need your advocacy more than ever – with key votes scheduled to take place in the coming days, you can help us send a powerful message that our movement is more powerful than corporate polluters and their deep pockets.

 

Read on to learn more about the status of our priority bills, the fights ahead, and how you can take action with us during these critical final weeks of the 2025 Legislative Session!


JOIN US ON MONDAY: VIRTUAL MID-SESSION LEGISLATIVE UPDATE!



Are you eager to learn more about where YUCCA's priority bills stand, how we're fighting back against harmful legislation, and how you can make your voice heard during the remainder of the 2025 Legislative Session?

 

Join us on Zoom on Monday, March 3rd at 5:30 pm MT for a mid-session legislative update with YUCCA's Policy Campaign Manager Ennedith López!

 

We'd love to have you join us for this virtual event, where we'll dive into the status of our priority bills, discuss dangerous bills we're opposing, detail how you can join us as an advocate at the Legislature, and answer your questions about meaningful climate and environmental justice legislation!



S.B. 23 PASSES THE SENATE TO RAISE OIL AND GAS ROYALTY RATES!



In an exciting update, S.B. 23 (Oil and Gas Royalty Rate Changes) was passed on the Senate Floor last weekend by a 21-15 vote!

 

YUCCA is proud to support this bill, which would help to ensure that the wealth extracted from our lands is reinvested into our people, our communities, and the transition we must undertake to build a just and sustainable future by raising our state's top oil and gas royalty rate from 20% to 25%.

 

This change would generate billions of additional dollars for our public schools, hospitals, and universities by implementing a rate already demanded by Texas and private landowners across New Mexico.

 

While S.B. 23 hasn't been scheduled for its next hearing in the House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources Committee yet, you can still take action today to urge committee members to vote YES on this critical bill by using the contact information below:



ADVANCING ENERGY JUSTICE: LOCAL SOLAR ACCESS FUND HEADS TO THE HOUSE FLOOR!


We also have another huge win to share this week: H.B. 128, The Local Solar Access Fund, passed the House Appropriations and Finance Committee and is headed to the House Floor for a vote!



As our communities struggle with rising utility costs, unreliable energy infrastructure, and increasing climate-related disasters, The Local Solar Access Fund offers a groundbreaking solution that would help to expand access to solar energy – lowering costs, supporting a just transition away from fossil fuels, stimulating economic development, and building community resilience.

 

Learn more about why this bill is so important for New Mexico by watching our video above, then take action to urge your State Representative to vote YES on H.B. 128 when it comes up for a vote on the House Floor by clicking the button below!


 

ACT NOW: JOIN THE FIGHT TO OPPOSE HARMFUL FALSE SOLUTIONS



We made our voices heard at the Roundhouse this week to call for critical amendments to H.B. 137 – The Strategic Water Supply Act during its House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources Committee and House Appropriations & Finance Committee hearings.

 

While we're proud that the tireless advocacy of our collective movement led to the removal of funding for produced water from this bill, we're concerned that H.B. 137 still includes brackish water desalination, which has the potential to result in land subsidence, the contamination of potable water aquifers, and reductions in surface water without complete aquifer mapping.

 

Desalination from deep aquifers also requires large amounts of energy, raising concerns surrounding financial viability and radiation – there is currently no proven treatment for the naturally-occurring radioactive material (NORM) radiation and concentrated salts that are present in brackish water.

 

As this bill heads to the House Floor for a vote, we're continuing to call for critical amendments that would:


  • Require comprehensive aquifer mapping before any brackish water desalination projects are authorized.

 

  • Limit the $75 million in public funding included in the bill to projects that are proven to be safe, effective, and necessary.

 

  • Ensure that any desalination plants funded through this bill can prove financial viability without public subsidization, are powered by 100% newly added renewable energy, and include plans for the safe disposal of waste byproducts.

 


As we look to the coming days and weeks, our fight against false solutions is far from over. Tomorrow morning, the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee will hear a slew of bad bills:


  • H.B. 273 (Natural Gas as Renewable Energy): This bill seeks to classify methane – a potent greenhouse gas with 80+ times the warming power of carbon dioxide – using combined cycle technology as a “renewable energy source”. Methane (natural gas) is not a renewable or clean alternative to coal or petroleum – in fact, it’s still a fossil fuel that is responsible for ~30% of today’s global warming. 

 

  • H.B. 457, H.B. 458, and H.B. 538: These 3 bills all seek to advance Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), a dangerous false solution that puts our lands and waters at risk of serious impacts from groundwater contamination and leaks while delaying meaningful action on real emissions reduction efforts that would reduce our reliance on the oil and gas industry.


We need your help today to stop this dangerous legislation and tell our leaders that it's time to put the well-being of our communities over the profits of polluters – you can send an email to the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee urging them to vote no on these 4 bills by utilizing the contact information below:



LOOKING AHEAD: HELP US BAN PFAS IN OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS!



As we prepare for another busy week at the Legislature next week, we're excited to share that H.B. 222 – Fracturing Fluid Disclosure and Use – will be heard by the House Judiciary Committee in the coming days after passing the Energy, Environment & Natural Resources Committee by a 6-5 vote this week!

 

This bill would play a critical role in protecting New Mexico’s waters and communities from the impacts of PFAS – dangerous forever chemicals that persist indefinitely in the environment – by banning the use of PFAS in oil and gas operations and prohibiting the use of undisclosed chemicals. 

 

Over the weekend, help us urge the members of the House Judiciary Committee to pass this long-overdue step towards transparency and accountability for the oil and gas industry by asking them to vote YES on H.B. 222 at the contact information below:


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© 2020 Earth Care's YUCCA  (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action) Project

Contact us at YUCCA@earthcarenm.org

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