Plaintiffs filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the New Mexico Supreme Court seeking review of an intermediate appellate court’s June 2025 decision ordering dismissal of their 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’ petition argued that the New Mexico Constitution’s Pollution Control Clause creates a “positive constitutional right” that must be enforced by the courts and that deeming claims under it nonjusticiable would make New Mexico an outlier. In addition, the plaintiffs argued that the intermediate appellate court erred by concluding at the motion to dismiss stage that the State defendants complied with the Constitution; misconstrued and limited the power of the Declaratory Judgment Act; erred in concluding that substantive due process was not applicable; and erred in concluding that the New Mexico Constitution’s equal protection clause “can never protect classes of people disproportionally harmed by state actions permitting oil and gas pollution.”

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 Plaintiffs Sought State High Court Review of Constitutional Claims Challenging State’s Oil and Natural Gas Regulation

Filed

United States of America

New Mexico

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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.

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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

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

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

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

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

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New Mexico Plaintiffs Sought State High Court Review of Constitutional Claims Challenging State’s Oil and Natural Gas Regulation

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Finance