The New Mexico Court of Appeals ordered the dismissal of claims under the New Mexico Constitution that the State’s system for regulating pollution from oil and natural gas violated the plaintiffs’ rights. The plaintiffs were individuals who lived or worked in close proximity to the San Juan and Permian Basins in the northwest and southeast regions of the state where oil and gas extraction occurs or who had “significant cultural, ancestral, and religious ties” to those regions, as well as “various advocacy groups representing populations particularly affected by climate change such as youths, Indigenous communities, and other grouped individuals living and working in the San Juan and Permian Basins.” The defendants were the State of New Mexico, its legislature and governor, and various executive agencies and officials. The court held that the Constitution’s Pollution Control Clause did not contain an enforceable right to be free from a given amount of pollution or create an enforceable right “to a beautiful and healthful environment.” The court further concluded that judicial resolution of a claim under the Pollution Control Clause would violate separation of powers as well as the “merely persuasive” political question doctrine. In addition, the court found that the plaintiffs could not state a due process claim because neither the federal nor the New Mexico Constitution recognize an individual right to environmental protection that would support such a claim. The court also found the plaintiffs did not state a viable equal protection claim because they did not allege a classification that resulted in discriminatory treatment. The court said their allegations of discriminatory treatment amounted to “incidental harms based on the geographic location of individuals.” One judge concurred, writing that while she agreed that the Pollution Control Clause did not create an individual or enforceable right, she was hesitant “to foreclose the possibility that [it] creates any right at all.”

Lawsuit asserting that the State of New Mexico and other State defendants violated the plaintiffs' rights under the New Mexico Constitution by continuing to authorize and promote oil and gas production without assuring protection of the environment.

Atencio v. State

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New Mexico Appellate Court Said State Constitution Did Not Create Enforceable Individual Right to Healthful Environment

Filed

United States of America

New Mexico

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

New Mexico Appellate Court Said State Constitution Did Not Create Enforceable Individual Right to Healthful Environment

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Finance