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Action Alerts

Demand community solar for New Mexico

46
Supporters Spoke up in this Action
Delivery to Governor Lujan Grisham

Action Ended On

January 25, 2021

What Happens Next

Thank you to all who took action! Governor Lujan Grisham signed the community solar bill into law on April 5, 2021. Thank you for your support!

What was at Stake

Legislators in Santa Fe just passed important community solar legislation, which is now waiting for the Governor to sign it into law. Please help us urge Governor Lujan Grisham to increase renewable energy production in the state by signing the community solar legislation into law.

Community solar projects allow families, Native American tribes, cities and towns, counties, businesses, and nonprofits to go solar even if they don’t own their property, have old or shaded roofs, or face financial barriers to rooftop solar.

Affordable solar power is providing savings, jobs, and healthier air to communities all across the country, but in sunny New Mexico, a majority of families don’t have access to solar. Everyone deserves access to clean energy, clean air, and economic opportunity.

Passing community solar is an important step in New Mexico’s efforts to create a path toward 100 percent clean energy by 2045 in a way that ensures that low and moderate income families unlock the benefits of a 100% clean energy economy.

Help make this a reality for New Mexico by sending a message to the Governor urging them to sign the community solar legislation.

Current Action Alerts

Similar in concept to a community garden, community solar allows multiple customers to purchase electricity from the same solar installation.
Russ Ferriday / CC BY-SA 2.0

Similar in concept to a community garden, community solar allows multiple customers to purchase electricity from the same solar installation.

Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

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You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue. Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn more about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.

“We cannot let utility fees put clean energy out of reach.”
– Sara GersenAttorney, Clean Energy Program, Earthjustice
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