Find out what environmental bills your legislators want to become law

SANTA FE — Just a week into the 2025 Legislature, policymakers have already introduced more than 200 bills. Dozens of the filings relate to the environment, climate change and water — issues that were expected to be prioritized in the 60-day session.

Indeed, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham included multiple climate and energy priorities in her State of the State Address on Tuesday, the opening day of the session, from a controversial strategic water supply to establishing a state-sponsored fire insurance program for disaster victims.

Many items of environmental-related legislation introduced so far by legislators have to do with the oil and gas industry, which is booming in the state and heavily funds New Mexico’s public schools. Bills seek to ensure the industry is operating in ways that protect the safety of the public and the environment.

One such bill, Senate Bill 4, would establish statewide greenhouse gas emissions limits, introduced by Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque. Nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions in New Mexico come from the oil and gas industry.

Stewart’s bill would limit greenhouse gas emissions levels to: at least 45% less than 2005 levels by 2030 — a goal also outlined in a 2019 executive order by Lujan Grisham; 75% less than 2005 levels by 2040; and 100% less than 2005 levels by 2050 and afterward.

The New Mexico Environment Department would annually inventory statewide greenhouse gas emissions and analyze progress toward meeting the limits, reporting the information to the state and tribal governments as well as posting it online.

The proposal has drawn criticism from Republican lawmakers, with Sen. Candy Ezzell, R-Roswell, saying, “the progressives in Santa Fe are trying to destroy the state’s most important industries and sources of revenue.”

“These bills are purely far-left special interest proposals that will kill thousands of jobs and shut down our state’s sources of funding,” Ezzell added. “If Senate Bill 4 is passed, I hope the senators who voted for it will be responsible for replacing the food we eat and the funding that pays for our schools, roads and essential government services we as New Mexicans rely on.”

The proposal comes as the nation waits to see if President Donald Trump will hold true to repealing methane leak penalties, which he campaigned on.

“By setting clear targets and investing in local communities, we’re creating opportunities for families while safeguarding our environment and future,” Stewart said in a statement to the Journal.

Stewart isn’t the only one concerned about negative climate consequences with Trump in the Oval Office.

The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club recently highlighted some of Trump’s first environmental actions in office, including freezing unspent Inflation Reduction Act dollars, halting offshore wind projects and rescinding a Biden-era clean energy executive order.

“Here in New Mexico, the impacts will continue to be outsized, in the form of increasingly powerful fires and floods that take our homes, our lands and our lives. … We have to act, especially with the federal government leaving us exposed to such risk,” said Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman in a statement.

Stewart also wants to progress a few other climate initiatives, including allocating $340 million for a “community benefit fund” to help the public reduce emissions through resources like workforce training, economic development opportunities and electric vehicle infrastructure.

Another priority is passing her “Innovation and Government Act,” which would send $10 million to state agencies to help them think “outside the box” about how to address climate change, according to a staffer for Stewart.

“Now is the time for states to lead in reducing heat-trapping pollution as more and more communities, especially here in New Mexico, face growing threats from drought, wildfires, flooding and extreme weather,” Stewart said.

Democratic Reps. Debra Sariñana of Albuquerque and Joanne Ferrary of Las Cruces are sponsoring House Bill 35, which would institute “children’s health protection zones,” barring the state from approving any new permits to drill oil and gas wells within one mile of schools. Preexisting operators, under the bill, would have to develop leak detection and response plans.

There are about 34,000 students attending schools with oil and gas facilities within a mile of their institutions, according to Ennedith Lopez, the policy campaign manager for Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, or YUCCA, which supports House Bill 35.

“We’re doing this in attempts to protect children’s public health, especially children who are within this oil and gas infrastructure,” she said.

YUCCA worked with Sariñana on two other climate protection bills: One that would prohibit oil and gas production in counties where emissions contributing to ozone pollution exceeding national standards and another that would require the state’s Oil Conservation Division to protect public health and the environment when overseeing oil and gas permits and development, Lopez said.

Additional oil and gas profit opportunities

A proposed Strategic Water Supply Act has become somewhat of a buzzword around the Roundhouse, drawing in mixed reactions.

The legislation, filed by Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, and backed by the governor, would allow the state to enter into contracts or award grants for projects that involve treated brackish or produced water, “for the purposes of reducing the state’s reliance on fresh water resources or expanding water reuse opportunities,” according to the bill.

Lujan Grisham promised the recycled water wouldn’t be used for human or animal consumption or irrigate crops in her State of the State Address.

“We can spur innovation, create good jobs, eliminate pollution from forever chemicals and uranium and protect our communities from natural disaster — all while preserving our essential freshwater supplies for growing our crops and servicing the taps in our homes,” Lujan Grisham said in her speech.

Advocates of the strategic water supply say it’s necessary amid drought, while opponents say it’s not scientifically backed. YUCCA is one of the environmental advocacy organizations that doesn’t support the bill.

“It creates a standard that would allow for the use of fracking wastewater outside of the oil field, and what we want is to ensure that that wastewater remains in the oil field,” Lopez said.

The proposal, House Bill 137, has yet to get a committee assignment. It’s up to House Speaker Javier Martínez to assign it and then whatever Democratic committee chair it goes to, to allow it to be heard.

Another bill introduced by Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, also seeks to create out-of-the-box profits from oil fields.

Senate Bill 23 would increase the maximum royalty rate charged on those leasing state land for oil and gas exploration from 20% to 25% — something that could increase income to the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund, which mainly channels money to public schools, by $50-75 million annually, according to the Legislative Finance Committee.

The Land Office is a proponent of the bill, arguing it would align rates on New Mexico’s prime land tracts with what’s charged in Texas and private lands.

The legislation has failed to pass multiple times before, and, after dying in 2024, Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard stopped leasing the best tracts of oil and gas land until the Legislature approves a royalty rate increase. Garcia Richard told the Journal at the time she was “comfortable making this decision.”

“Raising the state’s top oil and gas royalty rate puts millions more into the state’s savings for some of our most important institutions every year to ensure we continue funding them well into the future,” she said in a statement last week. “I urge my colleagues in both chambers to join me in passing this long overdue update to our royalty rates for the long-term benefit of New Mexico’s families.”

As for why it could pass this year, Garcia Richard told the Journal it advanced further than ever before in the last 30-day legislative session.

“Many legislators have a solid understanding of what the bill does and have already put their votes behind it,” she said. “With such strong support already in place, I’m confident that we can push this increase to the top royalty rate across the finish line this year.”