Democrats support the use of renewable energy, workforce development, and job creation in this sector, and  small businesses in a just transition to a renewable energy infrastructure. We will position New Mexico as a key global hub for technology, manufacturing, and construction to join and accelerate the clean-energy transition. In our communities, Democrats will raise awareness to promote the adoption of conservation of natural resources, energy efficiency, technologies, and policies necessary to protect air, land, and water, and do everything in our power to mitigate and counter climate catastrophe. We will engage community members in decision-making through meaningful consultation and full participation in environmental justice planning.

We Affirm

1. The right to live in a healthy environment and the right to clean air, land, and water; and

2. Historically, Black, Indigenous, and people of color and lower-income and working-class people are disproportionately and negatively impacted by climate disruption and/or pollution; and

3. The world must move immediately to 100% renewable electricity and remove fossil fuels from all sectors; and

4. New Mexico must be using 100% renewable electricity by 2030; and

5. That reducing carbon emissions in all sectors of the economy is essential; and

6. Our nation's spending on infrastructure has fallen to its lowest level in 70 years, resulting in lost productivity, investment, collapse of U.S. manufacturing, and a degradation of our competitive edge worldwide; and

7. The importance of mitigating the climate catastrophe which means to improve the quality of life of community members in the face of wildfires, water shortages, pollution of natural resources, extreme heat, storms, floods, and any other climate-related events.

We Will

1. Develop a plan that lays out mandatory benchmarks to transition electricity generation, transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture to 100% renewable energy; and

2. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than 80% below 2005 levels; and

3.  Demand economic support for workers in affected industries and affected local communities and Indigenous sovereign nations as we transition to a fossil-fuel-free economy; and

4. Call for lowering energy waste by achieving state-wide energy savings of twenty percent of 2020 usage by 2028 with minimum annual energy savings of two and one half percent baseline growth through the implementation of energy-efficiency programs in all sectors of the economy, public and private, and in the building, transportation, utilities, and appliances industries; and

5. Support a rigorous Public Regulation Commission rule-making in 2024 through which the PRC adopts the annual energy savings goal of two and one-half percent and multiyear energy savings goal of twenty percent of 2020 usage by 2028; and

6. Reinstate the New Mexico Solar Energy Tax Credit; and

7. Transition tax breaks and subsidies from fossil fuel industries to renewable energy providers; and

8. Prioritize and incentivize wind, solar, and other renewable energy and energy-storage technologies while phasing out all fossil-fuel-based power plants; and

9. Support community solar programs to expand solar access to underserved lower-income individuals and groups; and

10. Support the development of Public Power in New Mexico, i.e., some form of public ownership of electricity infrastructure, to ensure that the transition to renewable energy will include a restructuring of the power grid energy markets and the ownership and control of this infrastructure to best serve community values and interests. Ensure and protect the right of New Mexicans to tie residential and commercial solar to the grid; and

11. Enact the Green Amendment to the New Mexico Constitution, which will make clean pure water, clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments a constitutional right for New Mexicans for future generations; and

12. Assert our rights to clean pure water, clean air, a stable climate, and healthy environments and communities as they are essential to protecting all New Mexicans from contagious disease (e.g., COVID-19), and pollution (e.g., Gold King Mine spill and Kirtland AFB jet fuel spill) and from the disparate impacts that egregiously harm communities of working-class people and people of color; and

13. Invest in a statewide, renewable-energy-powered, and publicly accessible electric-vehicle-charging network; and

14. Construct new transmission lines to transport low-cost renewable energy to market in a transparent and environmentally sound way; and

15. Upgrade distribution systems so that they have the capacity to accommodate the continued growth of distributed generation, building electrification, electric vehicles, and emerging technologies; and

16. Close the Halliburton loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act and require that all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) must be disclosed to the appropriate government regulators as public information; and

17. Support the formation of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) modeled on the four previous nationally chartered public banks to fund the development of the infrastructure needed to achieve our renewable energy transition; and

18. Reject hydrogen production that utilizes any form of fossil fuel, either directly or as fossil-fuel-powered energy; and

19. Ensure that all New Mexicans, including landowners, communities of color, and affected tribal nations, are honored and respected in the decision-making and energy-implementation processes; and

20. Ban the importing and use of clean water for fracking purposes, and require that the oil and gas industry account for all water: from its origination source; the amount used and recovered; the toxicity of the fracking waste “produced water” that results; and where that waste ultimately ends up. Require that the oil and gas industry be transparent with the public on these findings; and

21. Stop the use of fracking waste “produced water” and criminalize the contamination of watershed; and

22. Educate and empower our population using independent data with scientific and cultural integrity to face the challenges of climate change, including mitigation strategies that are relevant to people’s day-to-day lives; and

23. Support improved government regulation to ensure our water is not polluted by agricultural, mining, sewage treatment, chemical, oil and gas, or other activities; and

24. Increase funding for the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division to adequately staff all offices with qualified personnel at competitive salaries to oversee drilled wells, witness and verify the integrity of all wellbores, and enforce the most stringent federal and state environmental regulations, while creating public involvement and oversight of this process; and

25. Respect the cultural heritage and historical use of acequias and other traditional irrigation practices; and

26. Engage through community outreach to involve Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, lower-income and working-class people in meaningful consultation and full participation “at the table” from the beginning: when collecting data; researching; investigating; engaging in environmental justice planning; and in formulating solutions to unsustainable development and environmentally harmful practices; and

27. Support implementation of the “30 x 30 Initiative” (to conserve 30% of the nation’s land and water by 2030)  and keep public lands public for all time; and

28. Support the protection and reclamation of New Mexico’s state land, public land, and natural resources from damage inflicted by extractive industries; and

29. Support federal Wild and Scenic Rivers designation for the Gila, the last free-flowing river in New Mexico and its tributaries; and

30. Support the protection and preservation of our National and State Parks, Forests, Monuments, World Heritage Sites, and Indigenous sacred sites, especially those in New Mexico, such as Chaco Canyon and Valle del Oro; and

31. Support the Endangered Species Act to protect threatened and endangered animals; and

32. Support a state-level moratorium on the building, placement, or expansion of existing factory animal farms; and

33. Support enlisting farmers and ranchers as partners in promoting conservation and stewardship; and

34. Advocate for legislation and policies that will require state and local governments to implement federal Justice40 policies, rules, and laws (to deliver at least 40% of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities). Coordinate with federal government agencies to remediate the harms caused by decades of environmental and economic injustice and build instead healthy and sustainable communities for all through massive investments in infrastructure designed and developed by and for the people; and

35. Establish an independent and transparent baseline for groundwater based on Cumulative Impact Analyses; test for groundwater quantity and quality before new permits are issued; and ensure due process in these water permitting procedures; and

36. Advocate for federal, state, and local legislation that will require government agencies to consider cumulative impacts from multiple pollutants and sources, mandatory limits on fossil-fuel emissions in already polluted communities, and the applicants’ past violations when such agencies are making permitting decisions under water and air quality laws; and

37. Advocate for federal, state, and local legislation that will require and adequately fund government agencies to include community-based environmental, public health, and social impact data collection and analysis, related research, mapping, and environmental justice strategic plans in the implementation of agency programs and policies.