We elect our legislators. That means they work for us, and it’s time for a performance review.
The first step to getting solid environmental policies passed is letting your legislators know that you’re paying attention. Here’s how:
STEP 1: Visit CVNM’s newly released Conservation Scorecard to find out how your representatives in Santa Fe voted on critical conservation issues this year. Find out your legislators’ score.>>
STEP 2: Ensure that your elected officials know that you are closely watching how they vote on the conservation issues most important to you. Send your legislators a message today.>>
In the last session, our legislators took important votes to provide much needed health studies for communities dealing with uranium mining legacy waste, fight attempts to strip away the ability of local governments to make decisions to protect their land and water, and defeat a measure that would have gutted our renewable energy portfolio standard which requires utilities to provide 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.
While some lawmakers continued to vote to protect New Mexico’s air, land and water, others sided with polluting industries by repeatedly supporting anti-conservation measures. Regardless of which way legislators voted, though, it’s important that they hear from their constituents – that they know that conservation issues must continue to be a top priority in the state legislature.
Find our your legislator’s score and tell them what you think about how they vote on conservation issues and what they score on CVNM’s Conservation Scorecard.>>
One of the best ways to influence the voting records of your elected officials is to communicate regularly with them. If your legislators scored well on our Conservation Scorecard, it’s important to thank them and to support them. If you feel you weren’t well-represented by your legislators’ votes, it’s important to hold them accountable by letting them know what you think about their votes.
We will continue to fight policies that sacrifice the best interest of our communities and future generations of New Mexicans. That’s why we must continue our work to elect pro-conservation candidates who will fight to protect New Mexico’s air, land and water – and hold them accountable for how their actions affect our communities. I hope you’ll check out CVNM’s 2015 Conservation Scorecard and share it today: CVNM.org/Scorecard.
