Author: gpabqmetro

New Mexico Greens are invited to visit with Dario Hunter on Wednesday, April 22, and Howie Hawkins on Thursday, April 23, and Dario Hunter on Friday, April 24.  Both are candidates for the Green Party presidential nomination.

Owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) must halt operations

The full Environmental Impact Study must be completed PRIOR to any further work on the pipeline.

Federal Judge Strikes Down DAPL Permits

The 42-page memorandum opinion is here.

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is now required to prepare a full environmental impact statement.  Greens in New Mexico support a moratorium on new hydraulic fracturing permits.

The Green Party of New Mexico filed an IPRA request last year to finally get the Climate Change Strategy released to the public.  Part of the plan deals with methane emissions.  We must be vigilant and make sure the state is not simply going through the motions.  Public input must be welcomed and engagement meaningful. NMED and NMERD are moving the public meetings on community impacts from the oil and gas industry on line because of the prohibition on large gatherings.  The meeting scheduled for Farmington on March 19 will start on line at 2:00 p. m.  Must register at the webinar site.  See details below.

The Four Pillars of the Green Party (Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, and Non-Violence) support the platform on which Greens run for public office and work to create peaceful, just, and sustainable societies.  Greens recognize that humans are part of the natural world shared by many other species.  We promote equitable and fair solutions to the problems of a complex world.  We seek open and inclusive electoral systems that invite broad participation of voters and candidates.  We strive to end the use of violence as a means of social control and foreign hegemony.

In New Mexico, a commitment to the preservation of natural water sources includes protecting water quality, reducing waste, and allotting usage according to historical rights and advancement of habitat preservation and regenerative agriculture.  We support a requirement for lapel cameras for all on-duty law enforcement officers.  Minor political parties are a necessity in the era of rule by a corporate duopoly; more choices and more voices are required if the hope of a responsive democracy is to exist.  Greens recognize that acts of cruelty are often multifactorial and range from animal abuse to illegal military invasions, and we support legislation to eradicate the causes of violence.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations is the highest decision-making body with regard to the framework to address climate change on a global scale. The 25th meeting started this week in Madrid, Spain. You can find lots of information at the web site, https://unfccc.int/cop25.

A major focus of COP25 will be effects on the ocean and coastal areas. New Mexico is far from any ocean, but we are still affected since we breathe.  https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/oceanproduction.html

After the Green Party of New Mexico submitted an IPRA request last month for the New Mexico Climate Strategy that was due on September 15, the document was released to the public on November 21. You may find the document at https://www.climateaction.state.nm.us/.

A major methane plume hangs over the Four Corners, which includes northwestern New Mexico. The Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico is a hot bed of oil & gas activity. Methane adds many times the amount of damage to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The air quality that results from methane emissions and other pollutants from fracking and conventional drilling has been associated with respiratory problems, cancer, and possible harm to pregnancies.

A series of public comments meetings in Farmington, Albuquerque, and Carlsbad were conducted for the public to learn about methane rules to be proposed by the state. The new rules would regulate venting, flaring and leaks of natural gas and promote capture of the natural gas now lost in the atmosphere. The benefits of increasing natural gas capture include larger state revenues, greater profits for the oil and gas industry, and less methane pollution for communities. The new approach has been described as a win-win-win for all stakeholders, including the public good. Below is a report from the meeting in Albuquerque.

During the meeting, the state was represented by the heads of the Environment Department (ED) and the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resource Departments (EMNRD). The two departments will work together on writing the rules, although the ED sees methane as pollution while the EMNRD sees methane as waste [of a natural resource].

The public in attendance was standing room only in a large lecture hall and posed many technically sophisticated questions, many critical of the state approach. Native Americans wanted to know about tribal consultations and a timeline for writing and implementing the rules. It was pointed out that the public comments phase was at the beginning of the process though actual rule creation may begin in November. A question and answer section went on for an hour. Also there was a sign up sheet for two-minute public comments. Several elected officials were also in the audience. It was a meeting with quite a different flavor from the meeting earlier the same week in Farmington with contentious input from opponents to any change of the methane regime.

Public comments are invited. The Environment Department can be reached at sandra.ely@state.nm.us The Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department can be reached at adrienne.sandoval@state.nm.us

References:
http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/186
https://wiki2.org/en/Methane_emissions
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131093
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009Sci…326..716S
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP2553
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.02.018

Declare your independence from the corporate party duopoly! For a decade now, more registered voters in the United States have identified as independents than with either of the major parties. Depending on the polling or categorization method, this group may include minor-party adherents. Minor parties, e. g., Greens and Libertarians, often are included in a separate category (Other) that is much smaller than I/D/R. Note that 31 states, including New Mexico, have registration by party; the overall pattern does not quite hold for New Mexico. While the number of voters registered with minor parties is relatively small, the state is more partisan in registration than others, and the Libertarians currently have major party status.

Issues of local, state-wide, and national concern are sometimes like a buffet or the offerings of a summer picnic: varied, with lots of options for potential solutions. People like to pick and choose in accordance to their tastes and beliefs. The U. S. system attempts to force all partakers to choose from two prix fixe menus. The cost of this system is too high, prompting people to turn away at the entrance.

Those who obtain power through this system have subordinated their responsibilities of governance to the effort of entrenching themselves at the head of the table. People of colour, young people, poor people, and urbanites have found themselves in the same electoral boat as minor parties, without federal protection from disenfranchisement. We, the people, can declare our independence from this oppressive system by answering the call to run for office as a Green. More choices, more voices.

“Black lives have always mattered to the Green Party.”

-Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry

This post was updated June 19, 2020.

Here are two pieces published today last year on an important topic.  Juneteenth.  Juneteenth and Reparations.  Today, Whatever became of the U. S. House of Representatives began hearing House Resolution 40, a bill that proposes the formation of a committee to study reparations.?  It June 19 is a symbolic date.  People held in slavery in Texas remained captive for an additional two years and nearly six months after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued because nobody bothered to tell them they were out of bondage earlier.  The statements at the links below are from candidates seeking the 2020 Green Party nomination for President.  The Green Party steps up to address injustice; it doesn´t step away.

Juneteenth 2019 Green Party Presidential Joint Statement on Reparations

Juneteenth 2019: The US Must Repair Historic and Current Racism

The European elections last month had positive outcomes for the Green Party. The Greens had the second highest total in Germany with ~21% of the vote. They broke double digits in Finland and France. Some party members credit concerns about global warming as leading voters to recognize that Greens are serious about the issue. However, Greens are not a one-issue party. As recognized by the Guardian,

And more recently they have consolidated a manifesto that puts social justice and human rights at the heart of the fight for the planet…

Greens recognize that our Four Pillars (Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Non-Violence, and Grassroots Democracy) are intertwined. Destruction of the planet reduces resources, such as clean water and clean air, needed for healthy communuties. Conflicts arise over scarce resources, potentially leading to violence. State powers that limit participation in governance and economic development make it possible for privatization of public services and corporate control of natural resources. These natural resource are exploited for corporate profit, and the cycle continues.

Insist that Green candidates are provided a public platform. Help open debates; protest media black-outs; and work to stop the efforts across the country to limit ballot access. Let’s get the Green Wave to wash over North America.  Learn how you can help.

Guardian story
Common Dreams story
Map to Green Party Seats in European Union