New Mexico
Climate justice protesters blockade New Mexico Legislature on session’s opening day • Source New Mexico
On the New Mexico Legislature’s opening day Jan. 21, climate justice protesters blockaded the street in front of the Roundhouse, demanding state lawmakers take immediate climate action.
Demonstrators parked vehicles on Old Santa Fe Trail, while a crowd of young people painted a clock on the pavement to show the urgency of the climate crisis and demand protection for stolen, sacred lands and of their futures.
The group escalated to a blockade after disrupting the governor’s State of the State address in 2024, and staging a die-in inside the capitol rotunda in 2023.
Protesters included members of YUCCA, Pueblo Action Alliance, Southwest Organizing Project, the Santa Fe Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine and students from United World College in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
YUCCA Policy Campaign Manager Ennedith López said since her organization was founded six years ago, lawmakers have largely ignored climate and environmental justice. Her group plans to support legislation focusing on human rights, housing, and specific proposals creating a one-mile buffer zone preventing oil and gas operations around schools, day cares, parks and playgrounds, and limiting ozone air pollution.
YUCCA plans to oppose Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s strategic water supply proposal, López said. That program would receive $75 million under a bill sponsored by Rep. Susan Herrera (D-Embudo) that would make the state government a middleman to solicit projects to develop treatments for salty water deep underground or oil and gas wastewater, and to create rules to regulate those projects.
“Knowing that there isn’t science to back safety for human consumption or even simply the Earth, it’s just too risky of an investment for our communities,” López said.
Today’s protest follows yesterday’s executive order from President Donald Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. Gov Lujan Grisham, co-chair of the United States Climate Alliance, yesterday released a letter with Co-Chair New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reiterating the Alliance’s commitment to its climate goals: “This is not the first time we’ve responded to this challenge in the U.S,” the letter noted. “Our coalition was launched after the President’s decision to withdraw our country from the Paris Agreement back in 2017. Since then, our reach, resolve, and impact have only grown.”
Climate change legislation during this year’s session includes The Clear Horizons Act, which would codify Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 2019 executive order to reduce 2005 level emissions by at least 45% by 2030. The bill would set the goals of reducing emissions by 50% by 2040 and 100% by 2050, and charge the Environmental Improvement Board with inventorying progress towards the goals.
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SANTA FE, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) – The New Mexico Department of Health says it will continue to recommend the full schedule of childhood vaccines.
State officials announced the move Tuesday, directly defying a new federal policy that scaled back routine immunization guidance.
The announcement comes after U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reduced the number of vaccines it recommends for all children.
The New Mexico Department of Health stated the federal changes were “not based on new scientific evidence or safety data.”
“New Mexico will not follow the federal government in walking away from decades of proven public health practice,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Our recommendations remain unchanged.”
State health officials sought to reassure parents, emphasizing that vaccines remain widely available and covered by insurance.
“We know this is confusing for parents, but the science is clear: vaccines are safe, effective, and save children’s lives,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for NMDOH.
All childhood vaccinations will continue to be covered under programs like Medicaid and the federal Vaccines for Children Program.
The state encourages parents to consult their healthcare providers using the American Academy of Pediatrics’ immunization schedule.
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Former New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Jim Ellison is running for governor as a Republican, he announced on social media Tuesday.
Ellison is running on affordability, opportunity and trust in government as the key points of his campaign. His experience includes serving on the NMPRC in 2023 and 2024.
“New Mexico deserves leadership that listens, acts, and delivers results. Our state has enormous potential, but too often that potential is held back by policies that don’t serve everyday New Mexicans,” he said on his website. “I’m running to bring practical solutions, honest accountability, and a renewed focus on the public interest.”
A Georgia native, Ellison has lived in New Mexico for 20 years and currently lives in the Albuquerque area with his wife and two children.
Ellison is aiming to get 5,000 signatures by Feb. 2, to appear on the primary ballot with at least three other Republicans who have announced their candidacy.
Ultra Health CEO Duke Rodriguez announced his campaign in December and recently confirmed to KOB 4 that he received enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot. Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and New Mexico State Sen. Steve Lanier are also running.
Three Democrats are running – Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima.
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