Gov. Susana Martinez has until April 8 to sign or veto 284 bills passed during the recently concluded legislative session covering a wide range of topics. Among them are a number that can be considered good environmental measures, but not one that could be considered anti-conservation, according to the environmental group Conservation Voters New Mexico. That’s a great victory, the group said in a statement, because the session started with an “assault” on the environment.
“This session, which started with a full-scale assault on New Mexico’s common-sense environmental protections, ended on Saturday with the Legislature doing the right thing by rebuffing all attacks on the safeguards that keep New Mexico’s air and water clean,” the group stated in a media advisory about their legislative wrap-up, which includes a chart tracking over 100 bills that impact the environment.
The group was also pleased to hear New Mexico’s new Environment Secretary, F. David Martin, say during his Senate confirmation hearing that he supported public disclosure of chemicals used in “fracking”–the process in which earth is broken up deep underground and injected with chemicals to push natural gas to the surface.
In all, the group labeled the outcome of the 60-day legislative session a resounding success.
But at the same time, the new governor has made revision or repeal of state regulations her first order of business, an effort that CVNM says is “disturbing.”
A “Small Business-Friendly Task Force” created by executive order to review pending or proposed regulations for their economic impact began meeting on February 2, just after the 60-day legislative session ramped up. The task force is scheduled to issue a report to Martinez on April 1.
According to minutes and other documents produced by the task force, there are a wide variety of regulations on the books–not just pending or proposed–that the group will recommend be revised or repealed.
An overarching criteria for revisions of existing regulations, according to the mid-point report issued by the task force to Gov. Martinez on February 18, should be that New Mexico doesn’t have rules on the books that provide “more” regulation than the federal government. And two primary areas of focus for the group are the environment and the construction industry.
The task force’s goal was laid out pretty succinctly in the mid-point report to the governor:
The goal is to provide the governor and/or agencies cover when repealing or revising a rule or regulation thus avoiding litigation if possible. The final report to the governor will include a roadmap of short and long-term tactics and strategies, including the use of executive orders and legislative efforts. Each troublesome regulation identified will be accompanied by a recommendation on the best way to reduce their negative impacts. Because of time and resources, the task force has been broken down into two areas of focus in which industries have been significantly and economically affected by rules and regulations: environment and construction.
The environment department created a chart of 47 targeted rules, according to documents released through a public information request about the task force made by political reporter Tracy Dingmann, of Clearly New Mexico.
The environment department’s list of 47 rules is short on detail, or rationale, for why they are targeted. For instance, one targeted for revision is labeled “hazardous waste management.” It should be revised to bring it’s public participation requirements in line with the minimum mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency, the document states. But the majority of the targeted rules in the chart don’t have even that much by way of rationale. They simply should be rescinded or revised, according to the chart.
“It appears to be a systematic effort to dismantle rules that protect the health and safety of New Mexicans,” CVNM Political Director Leanne Leith told KUNM. ”It’s disturbing, especially since it seems that the Martinez administration is doing so at the behest of big industry.”
