The Green Amendment
The New Mexico Green Amendment will Amend Article II of our State Constitution so our environmental rights are given the same respect and protection as the other human, civil and political rights we hold dear, such as our rights to speech, property and religious freedom. The New Mexico Green Amendment will recognize and ensure that:
1. The people of the state have the natural, inherent and inalienable right to a clean and healthy environment, including water, air, soil, flora, fauna, ecosystems and climate, and to the protection of the natural, cultural, scenic and healthful qualities of the environment.
2. The protection of the state's environment is hereby declared to be of fundamental importance to health, safety and the public interest.
3. The state, including it's political subdivision, shall serve as trustee of the natural resources of New Mexico and shall conserve, protect and maintain these resources for the benefit of all the people, including present and future generations.
As a self-executing provision that replaces existing Article XX Section 21, the New Mexico Green Amendment will ensure that present and future generations will continue to benefit from all the values provided by a safe, secure and healthy environment.
In the final analysis – the New Mexico Constitution is the People’s Document, it should be up to New Mexicans if they want it amended. The legislature passing the NM Green Amendment doesn’t itself amend the constitution. What It does is put the question before the voters to decide. But that can only happen if there are hearings and the legislature passes the amendment through the process. Please take a moment to help call for this critical action.
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Write a letter to your local news editor in support of a New Mexico Green Amendment
If you Support the Green amendment You can write Letter to the Editor Here
Here is Common ground Rising letter it Support For the Green Amendment
February 3, 2023
Common Ground Community Trust (CommonGroundRising.org) and its 500 members support the New Mexico Green Amendment, which secures for all people constitutional recognition and protection of their inalienable rights to pure water, clean air, a stable climate and healthy environments. The Green Amendment supporters seek to inspire the pursuit and passage of self-executing, environmental rights amendments in the Bill of Rights section of the New Mexico Constitution
The Constitutional Amendment gives people a right to decide by a democratic ballot measure to secure the right to clean water, air, a stable climate and healthy environment. New Mexico agencies, commission, legislature and campaigns are captured by the fossil fuel industry. Most New Mexico agencies do not have the funding to enforce the regulations, they cannot monitor effectively, nor do they have the personnel to do the work needed to complete its mission and protect people and environment. It is no secret that there are ordered OZONE nonattainment areas in New Mexico that have been erroneously lifted leaving unhealthy and hazardous conditions in the Permian, San Juan and Middle Rio Grande Basins. By the legislature's lack of action to fully fund the EMRD, NMED and DOH it has forced its systematically marginalized policies onto disparate communities and sovereign nations in New Mexico who must find judicial relief through Citizens’ Suits. These agencies are well aware of the poisonous conditions that the continued permitting of pollution which results in collateral damage impacted areas causing sacrifice zones.
When one considers the legislative fiscal impact report on this bill including the phony excuses that were given by EMRD that this amendment brings more legal proceedings and would threaten renewable energy projects, one only has to consider whether the agencies actually mean that they understand that their support of false renewable energy solutions that strand assets and risk public safety and health would threaten their masters, fossil fuel interests.
Real zero and real solutions do not threaten more litigation nor does the Green Amendment. Given that the threat of autocracy is evident with the dissolving of a democratically elected PRC commission, it is only fitting that the legislators of the 2023 session give the people the right to say what their New Mexico Constitution should be.
It is time the New Mexico legislators make amends for the autocratic PRC appointments and vote yes on the Green Amendment to give the Citizens of New Mexico the right to decide whether we want our constitution amended. After all, the New Mexico Constitution is by, for and of the people and it should be up to us whether to amend it. That can only happen if the legislature passes the NM Green Amendment so it can be added to the ballot for the people to decide.
In gratitude for your Yes Vote.
Respectfully speaking truth to power,
Elaine Cimino Director
Common Ground Community Trust
For More Information RETAKE DEMOCRACY WEBSITE
Zoominar: Thurs., Feb. 2, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Green Amendment: What It Is & What It Isn’t
Join Green Amendment founder Maya van Rossum and a panel of experts to discuss what the Green Amendment is, why NM needs it, and how it has been implemented in Pennsylvania and NY. There is a great deal of misinformation swirling around the legislature. This Zoom will orient you to changes in this year’s legislation and help you better advocate with your legislators. Panelists:
- Maya van Rossum, founder of the Green Amendment for the Generations movement, an author of The Green Amendment, a book outlining the case for why we need constitutional protection of our right to clean, air, water and land. For over two years, Maya has been working with environmental activists to pass the Environmental Rights Act, AKA Green Amendment in NM.
- Mark L. Freed, Esq. of Pennsylvania is a partner at Curtin & Heefner LLP with a focus on Public Sector Law and Environmental Law and Litigation. Freed has worked on the responsible and strategic implementation of PA’s Green Amendment in a number of cases and assisted in promoting Green Amendment legislation across the country. He will speak about how the Green Amendment has been implemented in PA.
- Todd D. Ommen of New York is the Managing Attorney at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, Inc. and a Professor of Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law. He closely studied and advocated for the passage of NY’s Green Amendment, which passed in 2021. He now works with a team of environmental advocates and attorneys in NY to ensure the best implementation of NY’s Green Amendment and to educate members of the public and government officials on their new rights and obligations.
- Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, the primary sponsor of this year’s SJR 6 Environmental Rights (Green Amendment) will tell us what we can do to help get this Joint Resolution passed this year. (If her hearing schedule permits!)
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