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The UNM Board of Regents attorney questions a Mountain View Coalition technical witness on December 5, 2023, during the second day of the HEEI public hearing in front of the ABQ-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board. The UNM Board of Regents opposed the HEEI regulation. The week-long hearing is being held at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Historic HEEI Public Hearing

Proceeds Despite City Council's Attempts to Stop It


Please Make a Public Comment Tonight or In Writing


The historic Health, Environment & Equity Impacts (HEEI) regulation Public Hearing began Monday, December 4th, 2023 and has proceeded all week. Parties have presented technical testimony, questioned and cross-examined technical experts, and testimony has been heard every evening during Public Comment.


While the City Council voted to override the Mayor's vetoes of two bills sponsored by Councilor Dan Lewis on Monday evening, to purge the current Air Board's city-appointed members and to pause the Board's work through February, the Air Board, based on advice from Board attorney Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, proceeded with the HEEI hearing based on the fact that the City Council bills' effective date is 5 days after they are published.


On Tuesday, December 5, the Air Board filed a request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and Permanent Injunction to restrain both City Council bills from taking effect. As of this writing, the 2nd Judicial District Court has not ruled on that motion. The restraining order included references to the fact that Councilor Lewis is Director of Operations for Davidson Energy which has operations in the South Valley. The order referred to the moratorium as “unilateral”; the Bernalillo County Commission passed a resolution on October 24 also calling the Dan Lewis bills unilateral, impacting the Joint City-County Air Board.


Mayor Keller issued a statement Monday saying City Council's actions on air quality had put the proposed regulation and air quality in legal limbo. A statement released to media said, "We respect the concerns raised and the traditional disagreements between branches of government; and believe that on joint city county matters we should work together. Unfortunately, unless the county follows suit, this action likely throws construction, community and businesses into indefinite limbo, creating broad legal ambiguity that could tie us up in court for years."


The Mayor's vetoes of both Dan Lewis's bills were overridden when Councilors Klarissa Peña and Pat Davis switched their votes and supported the bill to put a moratorium on board action; Peña also supported the bill to abolish the current Air Board.


The votes by Councilors Klarissa Peña and Pat Davis were extremely disappointing and impeded upholding fair democratic processes. Their votes impacted frontline and fenceline community members who have spent decades working towards this historic moment of having a cumulative impacts regulation finally heard by the Air Board.


NMELC Legal Director Eric Jantz and Senior Staff Attorney Maslyn Locke represent the Mountain View Coalition as petitioners of this historic and precedent-setting cumulative impacts regulation. Other parties in support of the HEEI regulation are Dr. Sofia Martinez and Manuel Criollo represented by Gabe Pacyniak, director of the UNM Natural Resources & Environmental Law Clinic, and Law Students Ruhika Claughfield and Annalisa Miller and the Pueblo of Isleta, represented by Lindsay Cutler and Vanessa Hidalgo.


We recognize and are grateful to all of the technical experts who testified on behalf of the Mountain View Coalition. All of our experts —Dr. Rachel Morello-Frosch, Dr. Kelcey Bilsbak, Dr. Kelly O’Donnell and Dr. Jaime Clark—presented compelling testimony that the current regulatory framework doesn't protect community health. Their testimony made clear that a new rule is necessary to protect public health in overburdened communities, comply with national nondiscrimination laws, and lead to economic growth. 


One of the most powerful expert witnesses put on by the UNM Law Clinic was Dr. Monica Unseld who testified about qualitative versus quantitative data, bias, and the validity of Community Based Participatory Research. Dr. Unseld said public comments about lived experience from community members constitute qualitative data that should be given equal weight and importance as technical testimony. You may watch videos of the HEEI hearing on the Air Board website. Follow us on Instagram at @nmelc to see many video clips from this week's hearing.


Meanwhile, the opposing parties include Kirtland Air Force Base, the U.S. Air Force, Sandia National Labs, the Department of Energy, the University of New Mexico Board of Regents, the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, the New Mexico Mining Association, asphalt plants, and other industrial polluters.


Public Comments Show Overwhelming Support for the HEEI Regulation


As we write this, there have been 84 public comments; 100 percent of the commenters spoke in support of the HEEI regulation. We are thankful to everyone who has taken time to join us in person or by Zoom to make public comment in support of our regulation. Public comment is a vital part of any hearing process providing opportunity for the larger community’s voice to be heard.


Two of the most moving moments during public comment were when New Mexico State Senator Harold Pope, Jr. and City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn spoke in support of the beleaguered board, which has been targeted both by Councilor Lewis as well as outrageous editorials in the Albuquerque Journal.


One public commenter, Emily Arasim Beltrán, a UNM graduate student, said, "It is overwhelmingly clear that fact, data and evidence are all lining up behind the proponents of the HEEI regulation, and that those who oppose it are relying on assumptions, fear tactics and generalizations." 

Call to Action: Please Make a Public Comment Friday at 5:30pm


Please take the opportunity to speak in support of environmental justice and against decades of environmental racism by making a public comment tonight in person if possible or over zoom. You have 3 minutes to make a comment.


The zoom link is https://cabq.zoom.us/j/83037037761 Passcode: 009378


 It is unclear at this time when the hearing will adjourn. 


Special Virtual Meeting of the Air Board on Monday, Dec. 11, 9am-11am


The Air Quality Control Board will hold a special meeting via Zoom on Monday, December 11, 2023 from 9am to 11am. You may access the Special Virtual Meeting agenda here. The Air Board will meet in Closed Session for a discussion of litigation including Board members and the Board attorney only, followed by a Chair Announcement of any decisions made during the closed session.

 https://cabq.zoom.us/j/89897567927

Meeting ID: 898 9756 7927

Passcode: 337025


We know many of you raised your hands but were not called upon, as the clerk has prioritized people who have signed up in person at the ABQ Convention Center. We urged the clerk to also call upon zoom participants, especially those who have tried to comment on previous evenings. 


Public Comment opportunity is scheduled for 5:30 pm. There is no need to sign up ahead of time. You can come down to the ABQ Convention Center East Complex, 401 2nd St. NW and speak in person, or you can comment over zoom.


The Mountain View Coalition is made up of three groups: Mountain View Neighborhood Association, Mountain View Community Action, and Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge.


Talking points are below. 


Written testimony can be emailed until the hearing adjourns to airboard@cabq.gov.

Here is our FAQs handout on the HEEI regulation.


Talking Points:


  • We strongly encourage you to speak from personal experience, telling your story of how emissions from toxic polluting industry have impacted you, your health, your family’s health including asthma, respiratory illnesses, cardio-vascular disease, and other health conditions that may be caused or aggravated by air pollution.
  • The South Valley in particular has been the dumping ground for decades from racist policies by the City Environmental Health Department that have concentrated polluting industry in Mountain View, San Jose and Greater Gardner neighborhoods that are majority low-income communities of color.
  • The HEEI regulation would improve air quality for the entire county, but would especially address decades of environmental racism and injustice.
  • The City would no longer be able to rubber-stamp air permits in communities which are already overburdened with toxic polluting industry.
  • The HEEI regulation would require the City to take into consideration the cumulative impacts of existing polluting industry when making decisions about air permits moving forward.
  • Rather than killing jobs or slowing economic activity in the county as critics falsely claim, the HEEI regulation would attract clean, green businesses to our area and incentivize cleaner technology innovation. 
  • Businesses want to move to areas where their families and their workers’ families can grow up in a healthy environment.
  • If you have experience with the Environmental Health Department (EHD), and have ever engaged or tried to engage EHD about any of your air quality concerns or with any proposed permitting or rulemakings that have affected your community, please share your experience. We encourage you to share your experience orally but also in writing to airboard@cabq.gov.


In solidarity and with gratitude to the many community members who have fought so hard for so long across the decades to help get us to this historic moment to finally have a cumulative impacts regulation passed in Bernalillo County!


*Click here for Talking Points in Spanish


We also encourage you to send your thanks to Councilors Fiebelkorn and Benton for their votes to sustain Mayor Keller's vetoes on December 4th's Council meeting.


Councilor Isaac Benton (505) 768-3332, ibenton@cabq.gov

Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn (505) 768-3189, tfiebelkorn@cabq.gov

If you support environmental justice efforts such as the HEEI regulation, we invite you to consider making a financial contribution to NMELC to enable us to continue providing free to low-cost legal services to frontline impacted communities.


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