New Mexico Mercury

New Mexico Mercury

A decade of 100% defense against anti-conservation bills at the NM Legislature

February 21, 2014

By Demis Foster

For the 10th year in a row, Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM) and our allies successfully defeated every anti-conservation measure introduced in the state legislature during the 2014 New Mexico Legislative session which ended yesterday at noon.

I am so proud to be a part of this conservation legacy that CVNM is continuing for the people of New Mexico. For a decade CVNM has been on the frontlines, fighting the good fight, protecting our air, land, and water for a healthy Land of Enchantment.

Of note, we successfully defeated Senate Bill 283 and House Bill 296 Economic Development Utility Rates. These companion bills would have allowed utility companies to negotiate discounted rates for large companies, and pass those costs onto all other rate-payers without oversight of the Public Regulation Committee or a reasonable limit.

We care deeply about jobs in New Mexico and we can create them while at the same time advancing good energy policy that promotes energy efficiency and protects New Mexicans from unfair cost increases.

CVNM brought forward House Bill 343, a piece of proactive legislation that would have established a fund to conduct a baseline community health study of the Grants Mineral Belt covering a huge area of western New Mexico. Legacy waste sites from uranium mining threaten scarce resources and pose severe risks to public health.

However, there is no process in place to study the impacts that this environmental degradation has on the quality of community health over time. While HB 343 failed in the House Health, Government, and Indian Affairs Committee, the resulting conversation among legislators and stakeholders is shining a light on an issue that continues to affect New Mexicans.

CVNM actively advocated for or against more than 30 bills for the good of New Mexico’s air, water, land, and communities. Visit our website at www.CVNM.org for full results of our 2014 Legislative Agenda.

This piece was written by:

Demis Foster

Demis Foster is the Executive Director of Conservation Voters New Mexico, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization working to protect New Mexico’s environment and its cherished way of life. Demis is a veteran conservationist with more than two decades of experience as a grassroots organizer, environmental advocate and consultant. She has worked hard to ensure protection for places such as Chaco Canyon and our newly designated Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos. She has worked for the Wolf Recovery Foundation—the first organization in Idaho dedicated to the restoration of wolves in the Rockies, and spent18 years working on environmental issues while exploring the backcountry of the Olympic and Cascade mountains.

In 2004, Demis was awarded the National Leadership Award for outstanding leadership in protecting public lands for her work as the Director of the Ancient Forest Roadshow—a year-long outreach tour with two teams traveling across the nation with a 1,000-lb. crosscut section from an old-growth Douglas Fir tree.