A proposal to create a fundamental right to a clean environment on par with other rights found in New Mexico’s constitution will return to the Legislature in the coming days.

The sponsors will prefile the legislation this week, Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque), said during a news conference Tuesday with other sponsors and advocates. Lawmakers have already turned in bills dealing with tribal education, retired public sector workers’ health care and foster care in advance of the session starting Jan. 21.

If passed and signed into law, the legislation would create a ballot question asking voters whether to add a Green Amendment to the New Mexico Constitution.

Traditional environmental laws often fail to prevent harm because they focus on regulating how much damage pollution does, rather than preventing it altogether, argues Maya van Rossum, founder of the nonprofit Green Amendments for the Generations.

Three states have constitutional Green Amendments that protect people’s right to clean water and air, a safe climate and a healthy environment, van Rossum said during the news conference: Pennsylvania, Montana and New Jersey.

Similar amendments have been proposed in 19 other states, she said, with an ongoing ballot initiative in one state.

If the amendment passes, New Mexico would be the first state in the country to explicitly recognize in its state constitutional Bill of Rights the right of all people, including future generations, to a safe climate, she said.

It would also be the first to lift up critical environmental justice protections to that highest constitutional level, she said.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration has passed strong regulations to protect the environment, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo López (D-Albuquerque), but she is worried about how the federal government could try to roll back those gains.

The Green Amendment is a way to protect New Mexico from the excesses of the incoming Donald Trump administration, she said.

It will be the fifth time the Green Amendment has been debated at the Roundhouse. The proposal has been introduced every year since 2021.

Previous versions of the bill would have repealed an existing part of the state constitution that recognizes that the Legislature has a duty to protect commonly owned natural resources and ensure the public can use them. This year’s version keeps that in place, van Rossum said.

It took 10 years of persistent advocacy and some changes in who had power at the Roundhouse to end the death penalty, Sedillo López said.

“We have some changes in the Legislature, and we have a growing number of advocates who continue to provide sustained advocacy,” she said of the efforts around the Green Amendment. “And, we have persistent legislators. We will get this done.”

It also took five years of legislative debate to create New Mexico’s community solar program, Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) noted.

Roybal Caballero said so long as New Mexico lacks necessary guardrails like the Green Amendment, the state’s inhabitants remain at risk of declining children’s health, raging wildfires and flash floods.

“Our right to clean air, water, soil and environment should be protected above profits for the elite,” Roybal Caballero said. “Let New Mexicans decide if we prefer drinkable water for ourselves and future generations, or to continue to line the pocketbooks of the elite few.”