New Mexico’s budget relies heavily on oil and gas revenue, but the state also bears the scars of generations of mining and drilling. So when Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, a former law professor and current Democratic state senator, heard about the movement to add “green amendments” to state constitutions, it seemed a promising tool to address climate change and other environmental pressures in New Mexico.
In New Mexico, the green amendment under consideration would have asked voters whether they want the state constitution to say that residents “shall be entitled to clean and healthy air, water, soil and environment; a stable climate; and self-sustaining ecosystems, for the benefit of public health, safety and general welfare.”
Green amendments made progress this year in Maine, Nevada, New Jersey and New Mexico. But there are active movements to consider them in other states, too, including Texas and Florida, where political leaders and industry are more skeptical of environmental regulation.