Advocacy, Action, & Resistance - Session Takeaways, Federal Challenges, & Building the Future We Know is Possible

The Trump Administration is doing exactly what we expected – gutting environmental protections, rolling back critical safeguards, and putting corporate polluters first at every turn.

At the state level, we had hoped to see bold leadership from our lawmakers during the 2025 Legislative Session that would have helped to advance environmental justice, support a just transition away from fossil fuels, and protect our communities from these federal attacks – but that's not what happened. Read below for our recap and important updates about our environmental and climate justice work.

While we secured some hard-fought wins on key environmental and climate justice bills, we also saw our legislators on both sides of the aisle come together – not to take the bold action that's needed to address the climate crisis – but to green-light false solutions and advance our state's own thinly-veiled version of the federal administration's "Drill, Baby, Drill!" agenda. During the 2025 Session, our lawmakers showed us that they are willing to bow to industry pressure at a time when strong leadership is needed most – prioritizing profit over people and the interests of polluters over the needs of our communities.

At the same time, the federal government has doubled down on its attacks against frontline communities and grassroots movements like ours, pulling vital resources from the groups that are doing the real work on the ground. Recently, Earth Care was stripped of EPA grant funding that supported our community-centered environmental justice work – a loss that speaks volumes about whose voices are being silenced in this moment.

At Earth Care, we know that meaningful solutions don't come from powerful politicians or political parties – they come from the people. They come from the community members that have been impacted by pollution, extraction, and environmental destruction. They come from the frontline communities that have always held the wisdom, knowledge, and experience to lead us towards building the world we know is possible.

During this time of great uncertainty, deepening injustice, and political failure, the path forward is rooted in a powerful, unapologetic people's movement that isn't afraid to hold our elected officials accountable and demand real, transformative change.

We can't afford to wait for political courage from the people and institutions that have never truly fought for us – it's time for us to organize, rise up, and start building the future we deserve, together.

Trump Administration Strips Federal Funding from "Justice in the Air" Initiative

In a devastating and unjust decision, Earth Care's 3-year EPA grant for the "Justice in the Air" initiative – a citizen science project designed to build on Southside community members' concerns about continuing environmental injustices taking place in their neighborhood – was recently abruptly terminated by the Trump Administration.

This is more than an administrative setback or loss of funding - it's an attempt to silence the impacted residents of the Southside that the initiative was designed to empower and protect, who have been fighting for years to have a say in the decisions that impact their air, water, and land.

The good news? We're fighting back. Earth Care is part of a national network working to push the EPA to rescind these unlawful and unjust terminations and reinstate all Collaborative Problem-Solving and Environmental Justice grants–and we won't stop fighting to ensure that the voices of frontline community members are heard.

Earth Care's Environmental Justice Staff Team writes:

"This is a direct attack on the right of our communities to breathe clean air, organize for their health and safety, and have a voice in decisions that impact their lives. The EPA’s termination of our grant is not just a bureaucratic decision—it is part of a nationwide effort to silence frontline communities fighting against pollution and systemic neglect. The agency claims our project ‘no longer effectuates program goals or agency priorities’ because it supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental justice initiatives. But these are exactly the kinds of efforts that protect the health, safety, and well-being of historically marginalized communities.

Our project was designed to empower residents, students, and families to collect air quality data, connect their lived experiences to larger environmental justice issues, and develop community-driven solutions. Now, that opportunity has been ripped away, and with it, critical resources for civic engagement, public health advocacy, and cross-sector collaboration. This $500,000 grant was a step toward justice, and its termination harms a community that has already been disproportionately harmed. For decades, the southside has been pushed to the margins while wealthier parts of Santa Fe benefit from cleaner air, better infrastructure, and greater investment. The loss of this funding means missed opportunities to build stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities—not just in Santa Fe, but across the country as similar programs are being cut under Trump’s anti-DEI executive order.

This action is unjust, and it appears to be illegal. A federal judge has already issued an injunction preventing the termination of grants like ours, yet the administration is pressing forward in direct defiance of the court’s order. We will not stand by while our communities are stripped of the tools they need to fight for justice. We are standing in solidarity with organizations across the country facing similar attacks. We are actively organizing with national environmental justice networks, legal advocates, and grassroots coalitions to resist these unjust cuts and demand the restoration of funding for community-driven solutions."

5 Priority Bills Pass the Legislature – And Over A Dozen More Fail

YUCCA (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action), Earth Care's youth-led arm, supported nearly 2 dozen bills during the 2025 Legislative Session. Together, YUCCA leaders and supporters made our voices heard for 60 days at the Legislature – beginning on day one with our Call for Climate Courage action on the Opening Day of the 2025 Session, where we urged lawmakers to act with courage to advance meaningful climate action.

As the session progressed, we continued to fight for the passage of our priority bills as we gave public comment in countless committee hearings, participated in advocacy events alongside our movement allies, engaged with our lawmakers, and mobilized our supporters to call, email, and contact their legislators.

Our advocacy paid off during the final hours of the 2025 Session as legislators took action to pass 5 key bills to advance climate and energy justice across our state:

H.B. 91 - Public Utility Rate Structures: H.B. 91 will help to advance energy justice across New Mexico by allowing for rate structures that reduce the burden of high energy costs on low-income customers, prevent utility debt from becoming a permanent crisis, and promote affordability and continuity of service.

H.B. 128 - The NMFA Local Solar Access Fund: H.B. 128 will expand access to solar energy for people across our state by establishing a grant fund at the New Mexico Finance Authority which will issue planning and implementation grants to fund solar and storage projects to power public buildings and infrastructure.

S.B. 21 - The Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Act: S.B. 21 will protect our waters by allowing New Mexico to take over pollution prevention permitting currently done by the EPA, while also creating a permitting program to protect the 95% of our waterways and 88% of our wetlands that have lost federal protections under the Clean Water Act.

S.B. 23 - Oil & Gas Royalty Rate Changes: S.B. 23 will help to ensure that the wealth extracted from our lands is reinvested into our communities by raising our state's top oil and gas royalty rate to between 20-25%, a rate already demanded by Texas and private landowners across New Mexico.

S.B. 48 - The Community Benefit Fund: S.B. 48 is a reflection of YUCCA's longstanding call for the establishment of a just transition fund, and marks a good first step in moving us away from our toxic dependence on extractive industry and towards a renewable energy future that puts our communities first.

However, despite our advocacy and the efforts of countless community members & movement allies, our lawmakers failed to pass over a dozen meaningful bills that would have advanced a just transition to renewable energy, kept fossil fuels in the ground, protected against pollution, and expanded democracy and justice across our state. These bills include:

H.B. 32 - The School Bus Modernization Act: H.B. 32 would have helped to make electric school buses available and affordable to every New Mexico school district, producing fewer emissions, enabling quieter rides, and saving our school districts between $8,000-15,000 per bus every school year.

H.B. 33 - Prohibit New Emissions in High Ozone Counties: H.B. 33 would have helped to combat hazardous ozone air pollution by pausing the construction of new oil and gas pollution sources in counties where unhealthy ozone levels persist, helping to protect our communities from the impacts of unchecked pollution and prevent further environmental harm.

H.B. 34 - Oil Conservation Protect Health & Environment: H.B. 34 would have changed just 5 words in the Oil and Gas Act to require that the Oil Conservation Division – which is tasked with overseeing oil and gas in New Mexico – consider human health and the environment in their decision-making processes surrounding oil and gas permitting across the state.

H.B. 35 - Children's Health Protection Zones: H.B. 35 would have protected young people across New Mexico from the dangerous health impacts of oil and gas pollution by establishing 1-mile health protection zones surrounding schools, prohibiting the construction of new oil and gas wells within these zones, and implementing additional pollution controls, monitoring, and reporting for operators of existing oil and gas facilities within the buffer zones.

H.B. 108 - Statewide Climate Health Program: H.B. 108 would have established a State Climate Health Program within the Department of Health, allocating $1.1 million to strengthen capacity, improve interagency collaboration, develop culturally appropriate health education and warning systems, provide training and technical assistance, and enhance community engagement to address the growing health impacts of climate change.

H.B. 109 - Extreme Weather Resilience Fund: H.B. 109 would have established a $12 million Extreme Weather Resilience Fund to help local and Tribal communities prepare for and respond to climate-driven public health emergencies, prioritizing at least 50% of funding for small communities and providing grants of up to $1 million to support proactive disaster resilience efforts.
H.B. 222 - Fracturing Fluid Disclosure and Use: H.B. 222 would have played a critical role in protecting New Mexico’s waters and communities from the impacts of PFAS – dangerous forever chemicals that persist indefinitely in the environment – by banning the use of PFAS in oil and gas operations and prohibiting the use of undisclosed chemicals.

S.B. 4 - The Clear Horizons Act: The passage of S.B. 4 would have been a reflection of YUCCA’s long-standing call to establish real and direct emissions reduction targets that would hold industry accountable while supporting a just transition to renewable energy for New Mexico. However, we also stand in solidarity with our movement allies in the No False Solutions Coalition in our concerns surrounding the inclusion of net zero language in the bill.

S.B. 99 - No Fuel Less Than Zero Carbon Intensity: S.B. 99 would have been a common-sense step toward strengthening our state’s climate policy with critical guardrails, helping to prevent industry greenwashing of negative carbon credits, ensuring our climate policies are based on real science, and achieving true emissions reductions by ensuring that no transportation fuel is falsely credited with having a negative carbon intensity.
S.B. 178 - Produced Water & Abandoned Wells Fund: S.B. 178 would have restricted the reuse of “produced water” (toxic fracking waste) outside the oilfield and impose a fee of 0.05 cents per barrel of fracking waste to fund the plugging and remediation of abandoned wells.

S.B. 260 - Cleanup of Contaminated Sites: S.B. 260 would have allocated $50 million to the New Mexico Environment Department for the assessment and cleanup of abandoned and neglected contaminated sites, including abandoned uranium mine sites, across our state.

During the Legislative Session, our lawmakers also had the opportunity to pass meaningful bills to protect and support workers, community members, and advocates. But instead, they killed critical bills that would have expanded democracy and justice, protected activists and advocates from frivolous lawsuits, ended New Mexico's prohibition on rent control, and supported economic security for people across the state.

Among these bills was H.B. 169 (The Public Expression Protection Act) which would have protected activists' right to free speech and helped us stand up to those who seek to use the legal system as a weapon to silence dissent.

Lawmakers also killed H.B. 11 (The Paid Family and Medical Leave Act), which would have provided employees with up to 12 weeks of partial wage replacement for leave – allowing workers to step away to support their loved ones and helping to ensure that no person has to make the impossible choice between keeping their job and caring for their family.

In addition, our legislators killed S.B. 216 (Rent Control and Certain Entities), which would have ended our state's prohibition on rent control to ensure that families across New Mexico can keep a roof over their heads.

Mark Your Calendars: "Hands Off" Demonstrations on Saturday

There are over 600 protests planned in the United States and across the globe this Saturday, April 5th – a national day of action to send a clear message to the federal administration: Hands off our government, our economy, and our rights.

From defending Medicare and Social Security to protecting our public lands, standing up for free speech, and taking immediate action on the climate crisis, this moment of challenge and uncertainty is a critical time for us to link arms to demand accountability and stand up for what matters most.

Join our friends at Indivisible in Santa Fe or Albuquerque on Saturday afternoon to take action and stand in solidarity with thousands of people across the world. You can find more information about the protest in Santa Fe here, and you can find more details about the protest in Albuquerque here.

We'll see you in the streets.

Learn More About The Day of Action