Green Amendment Founder Visits New Mexico (Part 1)

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Join Maya van Rossum, Founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, in her journey across New Mexico to meet with impacted communities and environmental, legislative and sustainable business leaders to explore their stories and the power of a #NMGreenAmendment.

Check out Maya’s exploration of NM’s biggest environmental and environmental justice issues and the role a NM Green Amendment could play with: Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, sponsor of the New Mexico Green Amendment; Emma Rose Cohen, CEO/Founder of Final; Beata Tsosie-Peña, Environmental Health and Justice Program Coordinator for Tewa Women United; Artemisio Romero y Carver, founding member of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA); and Dee George and Penny Aucoin, impacted residents of Otis, NM

Article Illustrates Plight of Residents of ‘Waste Zone’ in Permian Basin

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An article in the news site Capital and Main on Jan. 28 (reprinted by the New Mexico Political Report) illustrates the challenges facing residents of a stretch of southeastern New Mexico dotted with  dotted with drilling pads and tank batteries that hold and pump oil and natural gas.

“About 129,000 people live amid more than 20,000 wells actively churning out oil and gas in this panthecake-flat stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert. Despite state regulations that require operators to report accidents, what triggered them, and how much oil, gas and water were lost or spilled, it’s not clear operators always file those reports,” said the article

Here are more excerpts

“Oilfield work is inherently dangerous. Extraction, heavy construction and transportation all play integral parts in the oil and gas industry, and all rank among the country’s most dangerous jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In March 2020, two men were electrocuted and died while working with a forklift in the rain on a pad site south of Malaga. COG, a subsidiary of Concho Resources – which was recently purchased by ConocoPhillips for $13.3 billion – operates the site.

But the dangers don’t end at the edge of the drilling pad.

Throughout the Permian Basin, there are many families like the Gonzaleses, whose homes and ranches are surrounded by drilling operations. Sometimes the pipes carrying gas and oil and contaminated water run right through people’s yards.”

Read full article

Maya K. von Rossum Speaks about Green Amendment on Local Podcast

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On Thursday, Jan. 28, Maya von Rossum, founder of the Green Amendment for the Generations, was the featured guest on the Richard Eads Show podcast.  Listen to the 23-minute segment

Legislators from Albuquerque and Las Cruces have brought the measure to the New Mexico State Legislature.  Senate Joint Resolution 3 (SJR3) was introduced in the New Mexico Senate. The sponsors are Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Sen. Bill Soules, Sen. Harold Pope and Rep. Joanne Ferrary. The measure, which seeks to protect the environmental rights of the residents of New Mexico, was referred to the Senate Rules Committee.

A JOINT RESOLUTION

PROPOSING TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF NEW MEXICO BY ADDING ANEW SECTION OF ARTICLE 2 THAT PROVIDES THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE WITH ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO A CLEAN AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AND THE RIGHT TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT, AND DIRECTS THE STATE TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL THE PEOPLE AND BY REPEALING THE CURRENT POLLUTION CONTROL PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 20, SECTION21