From New Mexico Environmental Law Center:

ALBUQUERQUE — The Mountain View Coalition and community partners issued a public statement urging Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller to veto two controversial bills that would purge the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Joint Air Quality Control Board and establish a moratorium on action until February, and also addressing misinformation that has been published in a local media outlet.

The mayor has 10 days to veto O-23-88 and R-23-176, which passed City Council Nov. 8 by votes of 5-4 and were sent to the Mayor Nov. 15.

Hundreds of community members have called or emailed Mayor Keller urging him to veto both bills and to support the Health, Environment & Equity Impacts rulemaking that is the real target of these undemocratic bills. The community is expecting the Mayor to respond to their pleas.

The current Air Board has been unfairly targeted and criticized at City Council meetings and in a local editorial. Community members have submitted the regulation to address decades of concentrated polluting industry in low income neighborhoods of color. Five City Councilors and their industry backers are putting Bernalillo County at risk for harmful chemicals in the air that all breath regardless of zip code. 

• Everyone should support our cumulative impacts regulation, because it will protect the air we all breathe.
• The purpose of the Air Board is to “prevent or abate air pollution.” The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Program, administered by the City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department, serves as the local agency partner to the Air Board. Thus it makes sense for the Air Board to be comprised of environmental health professionals, which it currently is, and not people connected with the industries that are to be regulated. From the Air Board website: “Board members are selected for their concerns about, and commitment to, local ambient air quality.”
• The current Air Board is comprised of highly qualified professionals with decades of relevant experience. Their biographies reveal advanced degrees such as Masters in Public Health and Masters in Environmental Policy, and experience such as founding the Environmental Health program at UNM, expertise in Environmental and Economic Development, a degree in Engineering Technology, an environmental scientist and a geophysicist.
• From their website: “The Air Quality Control Board is an independent appointed, volunteer citizen led agency created to carry out duties to prevent or abate air pollution under the New Mexico Air Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Air Act. The Air Board serves as a joint local authority acting on behalf of both the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.” The Bernalillo County Commission passed a resolution at their last meeting urging the City Council to defer these bills and authorizing their attorneys to pursue litigation if necessary to protect County interests that are at risk.
• The City Council—and the Mayor—should let the current rulemaking process move forward without undue political interference, and let the professionals do their jobs. Neither the City Council nor the Mayor are air pollution experts.
• Community members have brought forth the Health, Environment & Equity Impacts regulation in order to protect public health in Bernalillo County, but especially in communities that have been disproportionately targeted with toxic and polluting industry for decades. 
• Mayor Keller, who has been nationally recognized and received major grants for championing equity, has an opportunity to do the right thing and stand up for environmental justice by vetoing O-23-88 and R-23-176. 

President Silva of Mountain View Neighborhood Association said, “It is extremely ludicrous to compare Zozobra and hot air balloons to toxic, hazardous, and carcinogenic chemicals which are currently impacting the health and welfare of specific overburdened communities of color. The recent editorial depicting such a comparison is an insult to the reading public and the latest form of “yellow journalism”.  Health, environment and equity does matter to all of Bernalillo county. Wood and paper burning cannot compare to industrial emissions being released into our air. And the hot gasses from air balloons are no more equivalent than morning crosstown traffic. This editorial is an odiferous attempt to silence public concern for a clean and healthy air quality environment.”

President Marla Painter of Mountain View Community Action said, “We trust the Mayor, as a public servant, to do his ethical, legal duty to uphold the state law that authorizes the Air Board and its responsibilities.  Mayor Keller is known nationally as a steady advocate for public health, environmental quality, and justice.  He also must decide what is in the City and, in this case, the surrounding County’s best interest. We trust he will follow his conscience and not sign Councilor Lewis’s legislation or the resolution that stifles due process. To do otherwise would break the trust between the mayor and his community. We look forward to the conclusion of the City Council’s shameful attempt to overreach its authority.” 

Senior Staff Attorney Maslyn Locke at New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), which represents the Mountain View Coalition said, “It’s disappointing how much misinformation is out there about this regulation. We have decades of research that not only shows that poor public health is detrimental to economic growth and development, but also shows that air quality regulation has overwhelmingly positive economic effects. This is all something that will be proven by the Mountain View Coalition at the Dec. 4 hearing before the Joint Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board, and the idea that the Lewis legislation is providing additional transparency or doing anything other than halt a legal rulemaking process is simply ludicrous.”

NMELC Legal Director Eric Jantz said, “If Councilor Lewis had read his own bill he would know this isn’t really about transparency—it’s about picking and choosing who is on the Air Board. The City Council has no authority to tell the Air Board when to conduct rulemakings and when not to.”

NMELC Executive Director Dr. Virginia Necochea of said, “This is a historic moment after decades of organizing led by frontline and impacted community members in defense of everyone’s fundamental human right to breathe healthy, clean air. Our regulation is a strong stand against a shameful legacy of environmental racism. It is our hope that the mayor has heard our message and will veto both bills. It is the right thing to do in the protection of public health, especially for neighborhoods and families who have been bearing the disproportionate brunt for far too long.

Co-Coordinator Dr. Sofia Martinez of Los Jardines Institute and Pro Se party, represented by the University of New Mexico Law Clinic said, “It appears totally unethical and a disgrace for City Councilor Dan Lewis to move to abolish the current Bernalillo Air Quality Board and the regulatory process that is underway. We cannot continue to compromise the public’s health and well being for industry profit and so called economic growth. Hundreds of people have testified supporting this process, and public officials have a responsibility to those they represent.”    

The Mountain View Coalition is encouraging their supporters to contact the four councilors (Tammy Fiebelkorn, Ike Benton, Pat Davis and Klarissa Peña) who voted against Dan Lewis’ bills to thank them for standing up for equity and to letting the current Air Board do its job and to maintain their votes should the Mayor veto the bills. The City Council would need 6 votes to override the veto. The next City Council meeting is Dec. 4, which is also the first day of the HEEI hearing. The public hearing on the Health, Environment & Equity Impacts regulation is still expected to begin Dec. 4 at the Albuquerque Convention Center.