Good morning friends & supporters,
YUCCA here with some updates on federal policies to watch out for the energy & economic justice front. The 4 policies listed below could be huge for communities across the US. We are paying attention to them along with the Special Federal Election happening over the next 2 weeks.The Congressional District 1 Special Election is currently underway and the stakes are high! Melanie Stansbury is up against Mark Moores, a Republican state senator, who recently made headlines for his racist, anti-Indigenous remarks this past week. YUCCA spoke to Rep. Melanie Stansbury this last month after reviewing her YUCCA Candidate Questionnaire. We hope she is elected to this seat to elevate & sponsor good policy. Also, if you have not seen this temperature map from the NYT, check it out HERE. It is alarming.
Earth Walks is hosting Cultivating a Culture of Peace and Justice featuring Beata Tsosie-Peña, a free online event Today, Thursday, May 20, 5 p.m. email info@earthwalks.org to register.
Check out our full newsletter below for recent YUCCA news articles & upcoming events.
FEDERAL POLICIES TO WATCH
The American Jobs Plan aka The Infrastructure Bill
This bill would invest about $2 trillion over the next eight years in much needed public infrastructure including high speed broadband, affordable housing, and plugging plugging old oil and gas wells, abandoned coal and uranium mines, as well as funding environmental resiliency jobs including restoring forests, wetlands, and watersheds.
American Rescue Plan Act aka ARPA
ARPA is set to deliver millions to state and local governments. Santa Fe may be receiving up to $15 million in funds to be spent over multiple years with NM as a whole receiving $1.75 billion.
Senate Bill 1525 aka The Thrive Act
This is meant to be a comprehensive economic recovery legislation authorizing at least $1 trillion per year until 2031, providing family-sustaining, union jobs for more than 15 million American workers. This includes upgrading clean water infrastructure, affordable public transit, and a reliable electric grid, wind and solar power, electric vehicles, and healthy buildings, protect our rural and urban spaces, wetlands, prairies, forests and support family farmers who are embracing regenerative agriculture & more.
Extension of the Federal Pause on Fracking
The federal pause on fracking was extended through June 2021 for further review on its contribution to climate change.
If you missed our Guerrilla Theater Piece in April, you can watch it here!
YUCCA Endorsement of Rep. Melanie Stansbury for CD-1 June 1, 2021 Special Election!
YUCCA Action sent candidate questionnaires to all CD-1 candidates earlier this year. After the special SCC election, YUCCA spoke with her about her positions and what she hopes to accomplish in Congress. After that discussion we decided to endorse her in the election for Secretary Deb Haaland's CD-1 seat. Her opponents are corporate backed and have not shown that they will fight for our communities.
Check out her candidate questionnaire here and if you live in CD-1 check out the details for the election here in Bernalillo County. If you live in this area, you are in CD-1 and can go and vote. Election day is on June 1st! Early voting has already started!
In the Media & Upcoming Events!
NM In Focus w/ Laura Paskus & Arte Romero y Carver of YUCCA on the 2021 Legislative Session 4/16/2021
Climate change and the environment were among the many issues New Mexico legislators needed to tackle this year. But many, including youth activists, say legislators aren’t acting quickly enough on the issues that will affect young people most of all. Plus what Legislators need to address next year, like lowering the voting age in NM, the Green Amendment & the whole process of the session & accountability.
New Mexico’s fight to escape the
grasp of Big Oil and Gas
4/27/2021
Younger activists are growing frustrated.
“Leaving this session, I have never felt less hope for our government,” Arte Romero y Carver said. “In the same year that California burned and Texas froze, the New Mexico state legislature [passed] no or very, very limited environmental protection legislation.”
Back to the well (Searchlight NM) 5/19/2021
“It was kind of like a final cherry on top,” said Castille Aguilar, a campaign organizer for Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, a youth-led climate action group. “The idea that we can be leaders on climate change while continuing to give the industry free rein is just a lie, a huge lie.”
For activists like Aguilar, this spring was emblematic of the Lujan Grisham administration’s hands-off approach to climate policy. Democratic state leaders receive less campaign support from the industry than their Republican counterparts, but they still nix policies that could impede the immediate flow of oil (and dollars) in the state. Lujan Grisham and the Democrat-majority legislature talk about energy transition as something to come in the distant future, while tapping industry revenues to fund investments in education and other social policies.
The deadline is approaching to apply to the El Puente Summer Leadership Academy happening June 7-11! Youth in the area are invited to apply to our week of training with limited 6 week paid internships available and more opportunities throughout the summer and fall for youth in our program! Please check out our website for the application & more program details here: www.earthcarenm.org/elpuente SFIS Students who live out of town are eligible for overnight housing accommodations covered by the program.
SATURDAY MAY 22 @ 1 PM
2118 S Guadalupe St, Santa Fe
Keep Santa Fe Multicultural invites you to a community gathering in solidarity & support of the mural this Saturday (5/22) @ 1pm! Community members have been hustling to get this mural conserved and have DCA be accountable to the community. Please share & come out! #keepsantafemulticultural
NO MAS Rally Thursday 5/27 @ 11 AM
For far too long our people have been trapped into a toxic relationship with oil and gas. Our state depends on its money while our communities face the impacts of extraction and the climate crisis. It is time to change that! Our communities are tired of seeing how oil and gas money buys out legislators only to keep New Mexico intoxicated with ecological destruction and leading our communities into a worsen climate crisis.
MEET UP at NMDT Offices, 418 Cerrillos Rd @ 10:30 AM
Did you miss the Earth Day event featuring Yang from YUCCA? Watch "Katrina, Maria, & Sandy: Climate Justice is a Feminist Issue" panel featuring Iakowi:he’ne’ Oakes & Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, hosted by the Black Women's Blueprint & NOW.
RED, BLACK & GREEN NEW DEAL
Check out the Red Black and Green New Deal (RBG New Deal), an initiative of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), puts Black liberation at the center of the global climate struggle, and addresses the impact of climate change and environmental racism on Black communities. They hosted a May Summit which you can catch online HERE.
There's events happening throughout June, RSVP online!