Chamisa Elementary School sixth graders in the Global Warming Express afterschool climate program leave the Roundhouse after participating in Climate Crisis Day Thursday, March 6, 2025. Students created artwork of things in nature that inspire them. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
Ily Hinde, 11, wants adults to step up on climate change.
“I really care about this,” Hinde told Source NM outside the Roundhouse. “The adults aren’t doing enough now; they’re going to leave it to us to solve.”
Hinde, a sixth grader at Chamisa Elementary School in White Rock, joined other kids in the Global Warming Express afterschool program displaying nature-themed artwork as part of the push Thursday to impress upon lawmakers the severity of the climate crisis.
“I joined so that I can change global warming before it becomes a bigger problem,” Hinde said.
The trip was nearly canceled, said Susan Hettinga, the teacher and sponsor for the program, due to the high winds racing across the state.
In the Rotunda, before an assembled crowd dressed in black, lawmakers and speakers pointed to the blustery weather stoking fire conditions and the low snowpack as indelible marks of climate change.
“It’s really an overall crisis, we’re dealing with so many issues on multiple fronts. But I can tell you the work that you do making calls, sending emails, holding us accountable helps,” said Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque). “It pushes folks who aren’t there – but for someone like me, it lets me know that you have my back.”
Camilla Feibelman, the director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande chapter, said the black attire represented the level of concern for the impacts of fires and floods already hitting New Mexico.
“Usually we come in green,” she said. “But we came today to try to communicate that the stakes of inaction are just profound — that’s what we tried to communicate: that inaction leads to the impacts that we’re already seeing.”
But while some bills continue to progress, the tabling of Senate Bill 4, which would have enshrined state emission reduction goals into law was a serious blow, Feibelman said, saying lawmakers were “being scared by industry.”
SB4, also known as the Clear Horizons Act, set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels by 45% in 2030, 75% in 2040 and 100% in 2050 of the emission levels in 2005, spelling out in law the executive order Gov. Michelle Lujan issued in 2019.
“In many ways now, this session is about doing as much as we can, without regulating the oil and gas industry driving the climate crisis,” she said.
Senate Pro Tem Mimi Stewart (D-Albquerque), SB4’s sponsor, met with a group including members from climate and Indigenous nonprofits in the halls outside of the Senate Gallery. Stewart thanked them for their advocacy and warned that there was little chance for the bill this session, adding she’ll work on it in the interim committees.
“I’m just as anxious as you. I’m waking up at 1 a.m., thinking about this,” she said.
Foul weather? No ball!
Once a session, lawmakers put it all on the court in the Senate versus the House basketball game. But Thursday’s charity game — Hoops 4 Hope — was canceled due to the windy conditions.
The Santa Fe Indian School where the game would have been played was closed, along with other public schools in Santa Fe, Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) said on the Senate floor.
A media release from UNM Hospital said there’s no plans to reschedule.
“The challenge when we’re doing basketball right at the end of the session is that we’re all workin’ hard down here,” Wirth said.
Cleared the floors
So far, the Senate has passed 72 bills, and the House has passed 36. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed four into law.
Apart from the four bills signed, 1,306 bills are still working their way through the Legislature. See where they stand with Source New Mexico’s bill tracker. The final day of the 60-day legislative session is March 22.
At press time on Thursday, the House of Representatives was debating House Bill 84, which would allow workers to leave a “captive audience” meeting hosted by their employer, and sue if their boss retaliates against them for doing so.
The House unanimously passed House Bill 140, which changes how substances meet the definition of “hazardous waste.”
After the vote, New Mexico Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said he’d been “camped out” in the House minority office.
“I think we got them to a place where we could give them assurances that what we were trying to do is narrow, that it’s risk-based and would actually solve the problem,” he said.
The Senate voted 26-14 on Senate Bill 9, which would tie penalties for violations of the state Pipeline Safety Act to federal law.
The Senate voted unanimously in favor of Senate Bill 100, which would raise the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority’s debt limit from $80 million to $120 million.
The Senate voted unanimously in favor of Senate Bill 70, which would add 11 new crimes to the definition of racketeering, so that state prosecutors can break up organizations engaged in those crimes. Senators amended the bill to include cockfighting.
The Senate voted 26-14 in favor of Senate Bill 83, which would create a new Innovation in State Government Fund to help state agencies achieve net-zero emissions, implement sustainable economic policies, help other entities secure funding to address climate change or implement climate change policy.
The Senate, without debate, voted unanimously in favor of Senate Bill 126, which would raise the Rural Universal Service Fund from $30 million to $40 million, and devote a portion of the money to broadband infrastructure.
Bill watch
The Senate Conservation Committee passed House Bill 41, which would set aside $6.25 million to match federal drinking water infrastructure funding; $2 million for local government planning and $5 million for cultural affairs facilities; House Bill 111, which would require first responders in an emergency to make a reasonable effort to find a missing service animal; House Bill 128, which would create the Local Solar Access Fund; House Bill 206, which would authorize the New Mexico Finance Authority to make loans or grants to 62 water infrastructure projects; and House Bill 291, which would lay the foundation for dealing with hard-to-handle waste products.
The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee passed Senate Bill 39, which would prohibit step therapy for prescriptions for rare diseases; Senate Bill 205, which would create the Office of Housing Planning and Production; Senate Bill 250, which would prohibit state and local police from arresting or detaining someone based on a violation of a federal immigration law or helping federal police do so; Senate Bill 270, which would set aside $500 million to support federally qualified health centers; Senate Bill 288, which would set aside $2.5 million to increase reimbursements to Aging Network providers; a substitute version of Senate Bill 305, which would create the Quality Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention Task Force; Senate Bill 338, which would set aside $5 million to support recruitment and retention of health care providers in rural or underserved areas.
The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee also passed Senate Bill 346, which would set aside $14 million for local infrastructure projects and education programs; Senate Bill 365, which would set aside $100,000 to the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women; Senate Bill 366, which would set aside $200,000 to the UNM School of Law’s Corinne Wolfe Center for Child and Family Justice; Senate Bill 395, which would set aside $100,000 for the Special Olympics; Senate Bill 427, which would set aside $60 million to create new physician residency programs; and Senate Bill 436, which would set aside $100 million for the Department of Workforce Solutions’ operations.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 53, which would add prescribing psychologists with at least four years of independent experience prescribing psychotropic drugs to the definition of “independently licensed prescribing clinician”; and a substitute version of Senate Bill 219, which would create the Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board, allowing for limited use of natural psilocybin.
The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee passed House Bill 47, which would enable the property tax exemptions for veterans approved by voters in the 2024 election.
The Senate Finance Committee passed House Bill 69, which would establish how colleges and universities can calculate how an adjunct professor’s work translates into public service loan forgiveness.
The Finance Committee also passed Senate Bill 155, which seeks to clarify that embezzlement involving different victims remains distinct offenses and can be prosecuted separately. Other bills the committee sent along were Senate Bill 252, which ensures telehealth providers are subject to the same licensing requirements as in-person providers; Senate Bill 290, which makes the New Mexico Military Institute eligible for school capital outlay funding; and Senate Bill 480, which requires the state education department to collect better data on who isn’t graduating from high school on time.
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