Tired of Lawmakers Putting Polluters First?
- zoeyyucraft
- May 22
- 5 min read
We're tired.
Tired of empty promises. Tired of seeing environmental justice used as a political buzzword. Tired of lawmakers who say all the right things in public – and then vote with the oil and gas industry when it matters most.
A month ago, after the close of the 2025 Legislative Session, YUCCA joined our movement allies in the New Mexico No False Solutions Coalition to send an open letter to New Mexico's Democratic legislators calling on them to:
🛢️ Stop putting oil and gas profits over the people – and siding with industry over our lives, health, and well-being.
❌ Reject the false, corporate-backed "solutions" that keep us trapped in a never-ending cycle of pollution and environmental destruction.
🗣️ Start listening to the frontline communities who elected them – and fight for our futures.
Now, as we head into a critical election season and begin building toward what's to come in the 2026 Legislative Session and beyond, we're resurfacing this call to remind lawmakers that our movement isn't going anywhere – and to get organized to build the power we need to hold our leaders accountable.
Despite their promises to champion environmental justice, the 2025 Legislative Session made one thing clear: New Mexico's Democratic leadership is more interested in protecting the oil and gas industry than protecting our lands, water, health, and communities.
Legislators blocked and killed over a dozen meaningful bills – and failed to pass even basic protections like health buffer zones around schools, a ban on forever chemicals in fracking, and stronger cleanup regulations for abandoned wells.
And in their place? They fast-tracked harmful bills designed to promote "produced water" reuse, hydrogen, nuclear energy, and carbon capture – lifelines for a dying industry designed to let polluters continue to profit from the extraction of our lands while our communities pay the price.
But we're not backing down.
We're building a grassroots, people-powered movement that's in this fight for the long haul – through the 2025 election cycle, the 2026 Legislative Session, and beyond. Because our communities deserve real solutions, not corporate greenwashing and performative politics that crumble when it's time to act.
We're done with performative allyship. We need bold leadership that meets this crisis with the urgency that it demands.
This letter wasn't just a callout – it's a call to action. If you're tired of watching your elected officials sell out your future, join us. Together, we'll organize, mobilize, and make our voices impossible to ignore.
The fight is just getting started.
TAKE ACTION NOW: 4 WAYS TO SHOW UP TODAY
🌎 Building A Future Rooted in Justice: Take The People's Climate Plan Survey! 🌎
We need your input on the People's Climate Plan – YUCCA's living, breathing campaign and policy framework designed to reimagine climate action in New Mexico!
YUCCA's People's Climate Plan isn't just another policy paper. It's a movement-building strategy and a living, breathing campaign grounded in the experiences of those most impacted by environmental harm–Indigenous, Latinx, low-income, and rural communities across the state–and led by the youth who are inheriting the consequences of climate inaction.
The People's Climate Plan is about centering community power, youth leadership, shifting the dominant narrative around what real climate solutions look like, and creating a culture of justice-rooted climate action that reaches into every aspect of our organizing.
We're currently gathering feedback from people across New Mexico as we continue the survey phase of this campaign, and we need your input to ensure that the plan reflects our collective needs, vision, and values!
Take the People's Climate Plan survey today and spread the word to your friends and family to help us shape a climate future that reflects the values of justice, care, and collective liberation. Your voice in this process is essential–and will directly inform the policies we put forward.
🚨 Stop LANL From Venting Radioactive Tritium Into Our Air! 🚨
Last week, we wrote to you about Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)'s plans to begin releasing radioactive tritium gas into our air – and we still need your help to stop them.
To move forward with their plan, LANL still needs a "temporary authorization" from the New Mexico Environment Department – and that decision could happen any day now.
Tritium is dangerous even in small doses. It's linked to cancer, birth defects, genetic mutations, and women and children are especially vulnerable. That's why YUCCA is standing with our allies at Tewa Women United, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, and Communities for Clean Water to demand that the Governor and the New Mexico Environment Department say NO to tritium venting.
If you haven't taken action yet, now's the time. Sign on to the petition by clicking the button below.
☀️ NM Workers Need A Strong Heat Standard: Make Your Voice Heard Today! ☀️
🚨 Right now, over 200,000 workers across New Mexico are being forced to choose between their safety and their livelihoods. 🚨
As extreme heat continues to worsen across the country and New Mexico sets new record-high temperatures year after year, workers across our state – from agricultural workers and construction crews to cooks and janitors in overheated buildings – are being pushed to work in unsafe, potentially life-threatening conditions with no guaranteed protections.
That's why YUCCA is joining environmental justice and workers' rights groups from across the state to demand Safe Work for All – calling on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the New Mexico Environment Department to adopt a strong occupational heat standard that protects the community members who are the backbone of our state's economy and future.
Whether you've been impacted by extreme heat on the job, are ready to make your voice heard to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) during their public comment period, or want to sign on to Safe Work for All's petition calling on our leaders to pass a strong heat protection rule, this is your moment to act.
Add your name, raise your voice, and help us fight for the protections New Mexico’s workers deserve.
🚨 Tell The Governor and Mayor Keller: Withdraw The National Guard! 🚨
Right now, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Mayor Tim Keller are deploying the National Guard to patrol Albuquerque neighborhoods under the false pretense of a "crime wave". But that data is clear–crime is down, and this is nothing but fear-mongering to justify state violence.
We need care, not cops. We need resources, not repression. That's why we're joining our friends at organizations like Millions for Prisoners, Save the Kids from Incarceration, Albuquerque Mutual Aid, and SouthWest Solidarity Network to demand the immediate withdrawal of the National Guard from Albuquerque.
📱 Governor Lujan Grisham: (505) 476-2200
📱 Mayor Tim Keller: (505) 768-2000
Call now to tell the Governor and Mayor Keller that our community won't tolerate the criminalization of our young people and most vulnerable community members. We keep us safe.