The Session is fast & furious, packed with intrigue and behind-the-scenes jockeying. Rep. Matthew McQueen worked with bill sponsors on a rewrite of HJR 2, aka Green Amendment, as he felt the bill had been poorly drafted and would not have withstood Senate scrutiny. The substitute bill will be heard in House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources on Saturday at 9 am. HB 4 (Hydrogen Hub) was reintroduced as SB 194 and will be heard in Senate Conservation Tuesday morning. HB6 Clean Future Act has not yet been scheduled for it’s next hearing, but there is so much misinformation about the bill it warrants reaching out to your legislators. Contrary to sponsor assertions, HB 6 is not a climate bill, it is a fossil fuel bill. Things are moving so fast, you need to rely on our Alerts to keep current. Sign up by clicking the “Get Action Alerts” button on the right side of the home page. If you miss one, you can find them all at this link.
Legislative Update
The Green Amendment has returned in a bill substitute that improves the technical language, making it more likely to advance in both chambers, but does not change the substance of the bill. Retake’s one-page summary has been updated and we encourage you to use it to contact members of House Energy Environment and Natural Resources. Use today’s alert at this link for contact information. We also encourage you to participate in the hearing tomorrow morning and use our summary to offer public comment. The alert also offers the Zoom link to join the hearing.
Hydrogen Hub is Back. We are not fooled by the reintroduction of HB 4 as SB 194 Additional Energy Acts Definitions. Most of the HB 4 language has been copied and pasted into this new bill. This is not a climate bill, it is a dangerous fossil fuel bill that needs to be opposed. SB 194 will be heard on Tuesday, Feb. 8 in Senate Conservation, a solid committee that could possibly do what House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources did with HB 4 in its first hearing — table or vote no on this bill. Please use our one-page summary of SB 194 to frame your arguments and the 2-3-22 Alert to get contact info for Committee members and the link to join the hearing by Zoom. Write and/or call now, as in-boxes will be flooded by Tuesday.
HB 6 Clean Future Act needs amendment or without amendment, needs to be defeated. Please take the time to review our one page summary of HB 6 that outlines the amendments we feel are necessary to make this a bill worthy of our support. We support gathering and publishing emissions, but the devil is in the details and it is important to share with our legislators the details that undermine the stated intent of the bill. While the bill has been assigned to House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs, it has not yet been scheduled. But with the amount of misinformation about this bill, now is the time to reach out to members to call for amendments and describe those amendments outlined in the link above. Use our 2-3-22 alert for contact information for committee members (scroll to near the end). When you write or call a committee member, please focus on one or two amendments. In your email, please attach or link to our full summary.
Senate Rules: A Frightening “Debate” of SB8. I feel sorry for the legislators who were subjected to an nearly five-hour onslaught of often vile, racist, and homophobic comments on SB 8 Voters’ Rights Provisions today. Commenters included conspiracy theorists who have drunk the Trump Kool-Aid. Fortunately, there were also a significant number of folks from YUCCA, Common Cause, Retake, and many indigenous groups and individuals who offered a glimpse of what intelligent discourse sounds like. If somehow, you are thinking that the midterms are not important, I advise listening to at least a portion of the public comment. Frightening. A recording of today’s Senate Rules committee hearing is available at the Webcast tab in the top menu bar at http://nmlegis.gov.
Roxanne and I Offer a Mid-Session Report on the Session
This recording can be heard on KSFR 101.1 FM tomorrow from 8:30-9 am But we publish it today in hopes that when this airs, you will be furiously writing and calling and prepping for the HENRC hearing on the Green Amendment. We recorded this yesterday, so it does not include dramatic events from last night and this morning. The recording goes beyond recounting the status of bills, and describes systemic issues in the legislative process that we’ve observed in the first two weeks of this session.
In solidarity and hope,
Paul and Roxanne
Categories: Climate Justice
Leave a Reply