Direct your energy where it counts - oppose corporate capture

In conversation with our friends, neighbors, bank clerks, random passersby, we are struck by the fact that the people are paying close attention to the calculated chaos being perpetrated in Washington, and the direct impact that federal cuts and the capture of our Government and media by billionaire oligarchs will have on their personal lives and the lives of their friends and family. Like everybody else we are moving through our daily life, doing our work, taking care of our families and wondering what we can possibly do as the country teeters on the brink of fascism. The conservative agenda some voted for is worlds apart from the direct attack on the rule of law and the balance of power that we are witnessing, and people are looking for effective leadership.

We do not presume to have any better answers than you, but we are paying close attention to the emergence of national voices for resistance. We can recommend Choose Democracy, Democracy Forward, 50501 and the work of independent outlets like Wired and Propublica that are doing the investigative journalism that institutional media has failed to do.

We can also recommend the tried and true strategy of economic protest, a strategy that is targeted at the only language these oligarchs understand - the language of money. This strategy requires mass participation to be effective, and we do not know if the country is there yet, but we can each be part of building that mass by joining in tomorrow's 24 Hour Economic Blackout targeting national chains and asking our friends to be a part. Click the image below to register your participation.

HERE IN NEW MEXICO WE NEED TO CONTINUE SPEAKING UP AGAINST CORPORATE CAPTURE

Despite our dismay at the failure of SB 4, the Clear Horizons Act, there are good climate bills moving at the Roundhouse and your activism has been critical to advance protections against industry influence on many fronts. The Community Benefits Fund, SB 48, to fund energy transition projects advanced past the Senate Floor after hours of inane amendment attempts. SB 21, the most important water protection bill to restore protections against pollution to 95% of New Mexico waterways also passed the floor and moved over to the House. HB 128, the Local Solar Access Fund got a Do Pass in House Appropriations and a $20 million allocation in the budget.

Oil and Gas Royalty rate increases (SB 23), PFAS prohibitions in consumer goods (HB 212) and Hazardous waste definitions (HB 140) are all moving. Significant amendments to HB 137, the Strategic Water Supply, to remove funding for produced water reuse were made. These bills are making progress because people like you are speaking up, reaching out to legislators and making sure that there is a voice for public health and the environment at every hearing. 

TODAY WE NEED ACTION ON THREE THINGS

HB 222, the Fracturing Fluid Disclosure and Use Act to prohibit PFAS in downhole operations and require chemical disclosure made it through House Energy today on a close vote. It will be heard next in House Judiciary, where concerns that have been raised by legislators need to be addressed. Importantly:

• This bill does not require disclosure of trade secrets, it simply prohibits undisclosed chemicals to be used in downhole operations in New Mexico. By prohibiting undisclosed chemicals, companies decide whether to 1) voluntarily disclose “proprietary” chemical ingredients, or 2) not use them. Voluntarily disclosed information is not subject to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Further, an amendment has clarified that only the names of individual chemicals, not of any product or trade name, will need to be disclosed in order to be used in New Mexico.

• After the law requiring full chemical disclosure in Colorado went into effect in 2023 they are producing more oil in the state, according to CO production data from U.S. Energy Information Administration. This confirms what NMOGA expert Dr. Richardson testified at the OCD when asked whether a PFAS ban would impact NMOGA: “I don’t think it would have any impact at all, to be honest.”

Send an email to House Judiciary members and ask them to Vote YES on HB 222.

HB 137, the Strategic Water Supply Act needs further amendments to protect against contamination of our water and the danger of significant climate warming emissions from desalination plants. We succeeded in removing funding for produced water reuse from the bill, but discussion at the last hearing highlighted the lack of due process protections for communities in the bill and we are calling on Representatives to further amend the bill to:

• Ensure that the public has a right to formal complaint and a hearing if a desalination plant is planned in their community. Desalination of brackish water risks contamination of potable water aquifers, land surface subsidence, and reduce surface water. Furthermore, brackish water is often a non-renewable resource, causing permanent pore-space collapse. HB 137 currently provides for an inadequate Notice of Intent process that does not allow the public to intervene in any meaningful way.

• Desalination of brackish water requires an enormous amount of energy. Proponents of the Strategic Water Supply have opined that natural gas plants should be employed to power these projects, a prospect that could result in significant increases in climate warming emissions. The bill should be amended to require that any plant constructed with the help of public funds must be powered by newly renewable energy with storage.

Email your Representative and ask them to amend the Strategic Water Supply Act.

Oppose HB 457 and 458 - Carbon Capture Sequestration Permitting and Funding bills, and HB 538, a related tax credit bill that are up for hearing in House Energy on Saturday - Carbon capture is a false climate solution being pushed by oil and gas companies to provide an excuse to continue their earth destroying extraction industry with the promise of a technological solution to emissions. The problem? Carbon capture cannot come anywhere close to reducing emissions in a meaningful way, and carbon stored underground is not necessarily stored forever.

• The industry and their allies in our legislature are trying to hide behind a carbon capture fig leaf to continue business as usual, but their little leaf is WAY too small. Globally carbon capture has consistently over promised and underperformed. Existing projects could capture around 50 million tons of CO2 annually — cutting the more than 35 billion tons of gross global carbon emissions by around 0.14 percent. Once all 392 planned projects are online, they could capture a few hundred million tons — about 1 percent of carbon emissions. In other words, a pricy distraction from the real solution - a fast transition to renewable energy.

• The permit process proposed transfers ownership and associated liabilities to the State. This is very risky given the mobility of CO2 within subsurface formations. CO2 could shoot up from other abandoned wells and contaminate groundwater, and the corrosive properties of CO2 in the presence of water can affect well materials. EPA Class VI well rules suggest up to 50 years of post-injection monitoring may be necessary!