The focus of today’s Alert: How to defeat HB 228 Hydrogen Hub Development. If any hearings are posted tonight, we’ll send you another Alert later. But we want to give you the following info about HB 228 so that you can contact your Representative today… before the Super Bowl begins. If you read yesterday afternoon’s blog post, this contains some of the same info. We’re trying to reach as many of you as possible!
As we told you on Friday, House Commerce & Economic Development passed the latest Hydrogen Hub bill, HB 228. The vote was 7:3. Five Democrats and two Republicans vote to pass; two Dems. and one Republican voted against the bill. Here’s the breakdown, including party affiliation:
- Antonio Maestas (D). District 16 (Bernalillo). DO PASS
- Natalie Figueroa (D). District 30 (Bernalillo). NO PASS
- Rebecca Dow (R). District 38 (Grant, Hidalgo & Sierra). NO PASS
- Kelly K. Fajardo (R). District 7 (Valencia). DO PASS
- Doreen Y. Gallegos (D). District 52 (Doña Ana). DO PASS
- Joshua Hernandez (R). District 60 (Sandoval). DO PASS
- D. Wonda Johnson (D). District 5 (McKinley and San Juan). DO PASS
- Javier Martínez (D). District 11 (Bernalillo). DO PASS
- Jane E. Powdrell-Culbert (R). District 44 (Sandoval). DO PASS
- Linda Serrato (D). District 45 (Santa FE). NO PASS
If your Rep. is Figueroa, Serrato, or Dow, please email and call to thank them for their vote and ask what you might do to help them persuade their colleagues to vote against this bill. If your Rep. voted in favor of HB 228, email and call them to respectfully tell them they made a mistake. (See the link to our new, improved arguments against hydrogen development here, which you can send to your legislator. But please read through this Alert before you act. )
It will be tough for HB 228 to get through the House Floor, two Senate committees, and Senate Floor by Thursday noon when the Session ends. But we can’t take any chances. We need to try to stop it on the House Floor, so we’re asking you to reach out to your Representative now.
HB 228 is scheduled on the House Floor Calendar tomorrow, Mon., Feb. 14, 11 a.m. It’s 16th on the agenda, so it’s tough to know if they will get to it, especially with Republicans using the only tool they have to stop Democratic bills: filibustering. But that filibustering could work in our favor to keep HB 228 from ever being heard on the House Floor!
We’re pleased to provide an excellent new summary of research against hydrogen development, which you can find at this link. (Researched and compiled by Retake volunteers Saraswati Khalsa, who is also Retake Board member, and Dan Pritchard and Jay Levine, Board Members of Renewable Taos). Please use these talking points to organize your comments to your legislator. At the bottom of the webpage at that link is a downloadable PDF of the summary, which we encourage you to email to your legislator. Find your House member at this link, including email and phone number. Please email today and call first thing on Monday to urge them to vote “NO” on HB 228. Thank you!
One last note on HB 228: if you know your legislator and have their cell phone number, please text them the summary and ask to have a conversation. Also urge them to share the document with their House colleagues. Educating legislators is the best way to persuade them to vote against this!
FYI, HB 6 Clean Future Act passed House Govt., Elections & Indian Affairs on Saturday, 6:3 along party lines, and it now moves to the House Floor. It is 15th on the House Calendar for Monday, so again, we don’t know if it will come to a vote tomorrow. At this point we still support the bill, but we are urging legislators to amend it to remove carbon sequestration and offsets. To read all the amendments we are asking for, please read the summary at the link above. There is no need to take action at this time because we don’t want to dilute our hydrogen hub opposition with another ask of legislators.
Thank you for your time and your dedication to advocacy during this 2022 Session!
In hope and solidarity,
Roxanne & Paul