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The New Mexico Legislature's 2007 regular session (Jan. 16 through March 17) is over and it was a successful one for the planet. (The special session that followed immediately had no environmental bills on the agenda set by Governor Bill Richardson.)
The Rio Grande Chapter was interested in 31 bills on 16 subjects. In 12 of those categories, we supported bills and in four we opposed bills. All the bills we opposed died. And nine bills passed in seven of the 12 categories we favored. Some of the 18 bills we supported that did not pass were redundant and their death did not hurt because a related bill passed. The 16 categories are listed below and details on the categories fill the remainder of this page.
The Rio Grande Chapter's priorities for this session were to favor bills that proposed:
The chapter also worked to oppose:
During the session, the Chapter's interests were represented by lobbyist Dan Lorimier. He was helped by two club member volunteers who registered as lobbyists: Judith Bunney and Mark Jones. Dan wrote a series of email alerts that can be found on this website's Action Alerts page.
The legislature's own website, with bill and bill-tracking information, is at http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/.
(Passed by Legislature and signed by Governor.)
Many of the potential locations for wind farms are located in the prairies where there is limited transmission capacity. California and many cities are embracing renewable energy to reduce their global warming impacts, and this is creating a growing market for wind energy. House Bill 188, the New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority Act, now passed and signed by the Governor, deals with solving this problem.
Northeastern New Mexico is an area with many sites with good wind-energy potential and ranches looking for ways to augment their revenues. The prairie states that are first to develop transmission capabilities that allow wind farms to develop will likely capture the “first mover” advantage in servicing the growing demand for wind energy. Other prairie states have somewhat better sites for wind generation, but New Mexico has an advantage in proximity to the California market.
In order to connect northeastern New Mexico to the California markets, it will be necessary to build new transmission lines. House Bill 188 creates a quasi-governmental transmission authority for planning, coordinating, and financing new transmission lines.
The chapter lobbied for this both last year and this year.
History:
(Passed by Legislature and signed by Governor.)
The NM State Parks Division (SPD) proposed an ambitious statewide “Outdoor Classroom” initiative. The Outdoor Classroom program stems from a study prepared by the SPD and the NM Public Education Department (PED) entitled “Making New Mexico Schools Work Outdoors.” The initiative is supported by the PED, especially the Rural Education Bureau and the Math and Science Bureau.
SPD and PED have found enormous potential for partnerships that can improve the education of New Mexico’s children, benefit state parks, and better serve the state in general. The 2005 joint study cites recent research indicating outdoor, interactive education can increase student test scores, reduce discipline problems, build citizenry skills and resource stewardship ethics, and increase teacher job satisfaction.
The Outdoor Classroom program could serve the entire spectrum of school-aged children, including public, private, and home-schooled children. It could help to close the achievement gap by pairing schools with state parks and other public lands and connecting children with the outdoors and with their natural and cultural heritage.
The program was to be authorized by House Bill 369, the Outdoor Classroom Initiative. An appropriation of $500,000 to SPD for the program was contained in HB 220 and Senate Bill 552, both known as the Mathematics and Science Education Act.
After HB 369 was tabled and money for the program was removed from HB 220 and SB 552, lobbying efforts focused on getting funding into HB 2, the General Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The House approved this bill with no money but the Senate approved a version with $250,000 directed to PED rather than SPD. The two versions were reconciled by a conference committee with a $250,000 appropriation to PED (half the original request) and this was then approved by both the House and the Senate.
Although the Governor made many line-item vetoes when he signed the bill, he did not veto the Outdoor Classroom money. Michael B. Casaus, Sierra Club NM Youth Representative, views this outcome as a victory and extends his thanks to all who made phone calls on behalf of the program.
Status:
(Died in committee.)
Senate Bill 542, requested by the Governor, designates November as a month when EnergyStar appliances could be bought without paying sales tax.
History:
(Passed by Legislature, signed by Governor)
Senate bill 994, requested by the Governor, establishes tax credits of up to $60 million per plant to encourage electricity generation by solar thermal technology or by coal gasification technology with sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions or by use of exhaust heat currently lost. It also directs the NM Public Regulation Commission to adopt rules to allow a utility to include the cost of clean-energy projects in their utility rates. The chapter lobbied committee members, testified at two committee hearings, and worked with an attorney for the national Sierra Club.
Senate Bill 463 expands existing tax credits for production of electricity from renewable energy sources.
History
(Successfully killed)
This memorial would have asked the state Environment Department and Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department to "resolve existing barriers in order to advance consideration of uranium production in New Mexico."
It was based on the facts that nuclear energy seems to be making a come-back and that New Mexico is estimated to have more uranium resources than any other state: $43 billion worth. The club lobbied committee members and testified before the Senate Conservation Committee in opposition.
History:
(Died in committee.)
House Bill 1234 and Senate Bill 1118 would have required governmental entities, such as cities and counties, that are entitled to acquire and hold unused water rights for up to 40 years to submit water management plans to the Office of the State Engineer for approval. These plans would have allowed the State Engineer to determine whether the entities were holding water in excess of their reasonable needs. The Sierra Club lobbied committee members in support of this and testified before the Senate Conservation Committee.
History:
(Vetoed by the Governor)
House Bill 2, the main state budget funding bill, was passed with $945,000 in it for a dam or diversion project on the Gila, the state's last free-flowing river. The chapter issued a last-minute alert requesting calls to the Governor's office opposing this. The Governor vetoed this line item.
Results of 2007 Session
Administrative
Accountability
Biodiesel in Motor Vehicle Fuel
Desert Rock Power Plant
Energy Efficient Appliances
Environmental Health Act
Gila River
Green Construction
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting
Land, Wildlife and Clean
Energy
Nuclear Energy and Uranium Resources
Outdoor Classroom Initiative
Renewable Energy Portfolio
Standards
Renewable Energy
Tax Credits
Renewable Energy Transmission
Authority
Surface Owners' Protection Act
Water Planning
(Passed by Legislature and signed by Governor.)
Senate Bill 418 was a bill requested by the Governor to increase the amount of electricity that the state's large investor-owned utilities must generate from renewable energy sources.
The previous requirement was 5 percent now and 10 percent by 2011. This bill extends these requirements to 15 percent by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020. The Rio Grande Chapter lobbied committee members on behalf of this bill and testified for it at three committee hearings.
History:
(Died in committee.)
New Mexico is one of the only western states with no fund or funding source for the purchase of land to protect special places, habitat for wildlife and development of clean energy. The idea of a conservation fund is less controversial than funding such a fund. The bills submitted in the 2006 short legislative session with the Governor’s support stalled in committee.
In 2007 Governor Richardson again proposed funding a conservation fund with a portion of the proceeds from the existing Oil Conservation Tax (about $9.6 million this year). But both bills again stalled in committee.
History:
(Passed by Legislature and signed by Governor.)
The Surface Owners’ Protection Act, which has been passed and signed by the Governor, will, for the first time, require companies in New Mexico to notify landowners 30 days in advance of drilling operations, negotiate a surface use agreement with the landowner and compensate the landowner for all damages and use of the land.
Representative Andy Nuñez (D-Hatch) led the charge to pass the bill for three legislative sessions and finally succeeded. The bill passed is a compromise between land owners and the oil and gas industry.
It is "the strongest landowner bill in the country," in the opinion of Gwen Lachelt, director of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, a landowners advocacy organization based in Colorado. She said at least 11 other states have laws on this subject but New Mexico's stands out for the amount of information that must be supplied to landowners and for the extent of damages that can be recovered from drillers.
History:
(Successfully killed)
Desert Rock is a proposed coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation near Farmington. To make the project more affordable, the developer, Sithe Global Power, LLC., requested tax breaks from both the Navajo Nation and the NM Legislature.
The Navajo Nation Council voted last year 66-7 to support a tribal tax break. There were two bills in the NM House and Senate this session to let Sithe avoid $85 million in state taxes over 29 years. The company claimed it would still pay about $550 million in state taxes over the next 30 years.
On Jan. 29, the House bill received a set-back when the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 7-6 to table it. However, The committee voted 7-5 Feb. 16 to reconsider it on a motion of Rep. Joni Marie Gutierrez, D-Mesilla. It was tabled again temporarily on Feb. 23 so committee members could study amendments proposed by Rep. Peter Wirth and by Sithe. Wirth's would require at least 25 percent of the energy produced by the plant to be consumed in New Mexico. Sithe's would make its tax credit contingent on helping other coal-fired plants in the region reduce emissions. On Feb. 28, the committee tabled the bill again, permanently according to the committee chairman.
A similar bill was before the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee, was withdrawn from there and referred to the Senate Conservation Committee. That committee gave it a "do pass" recommendation Feb. 22 and it went to the Senate Finance Committee where it died.
The Sierra Club, led by Carol Oldham worked hard and successfully to stop this bill. For more information on the project, see this website's Desert Rock page.
History:
(Two bills passed by Legislature, one signed by Governor, one pocket vetoed)
House Bill 610 provides for establishment of standards for accommodating solar collectors in new construction.
House Bill 611 amends the definition of "solar collector" in the Solar Rights Act and invalidates restrictions on the installation or use of solar collectors. This was a recommendation of the Governor's Climate Change Advisory Group.
House Bill 677 would have given $100,000 to the state Construction Industries Division to train residents to install solar energy systems in compliance with state quality standards.
Senate Bill 543, requested by the Governor, would have provided tax credits for construction of commercial or residential buildings in accordance with "sustainable" building guidelines issued by several organizations.
Senate Bill 981 would have given $150,000 to the state Construction Industries Division to develop new energy-efficient building code provisions and train contractors and inspectors in such practices.
Senate Bill 996 would have given $100,000 to the NM Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to train builder, architects, and building inspectors to be certified in green building technologies and design.
Senate Bill 317 was amended in the Senate to include the sustainable building tax credits from SB 543 which failed. But SB 317 also failed.
History:
(Died in committee.)
House Bill 431 implements greenhouse gas reporting and a greenhouse gas registry for the state, two recommendations made by the New Mexico Climate Change Advisory Board. It also authorizes collection fees to cover the expense of this. The chapter lobbied committee members and testified at all hearings for this bill.
History:
(Died in committee.)
House Bill 685 would have imposed many restrictions on how state agencies perform their duties. One restriction would have required that the name of a person reporting a violation of law or rule be made public. Another would have required agencies to regulate small businesses more leniently than large businesses. Many of its provision would have made the job of the Environment Department more difficult.
History:
(Died in committee)
These bills would have required the state Environment Department to have community impact assessments done and take them into consideration when it is making regulatory decisions about facilities that pollute. They also would have provided communities and individuals with recourse against Environment Department decisions that violate these laws.
The chapter has lobbied for this for several sessions.
History:
(Passed by Legislature, signed by Governor)
Senate Bill 489 requires diesel fuel sold in New Mexico to contain five percent biodiesel (fuel derived from plant oils or animal fats) starting in 2010 for state and public school customers and 2012 for all customers.
History:
