Governor Martinez Puts Big Industry Before New Mexicans, Environment
Press Conference at Capitol Unveils New Report, Asks Governor to Listen to All New Mexicans, Not Just Big Business
SANTA FE, N.M. –- Food & Water Watch, joined by Conservation Voters New Mexico and the New Mexico Federation of Labor, today released a report that outlines several examples of how Governor Susana Martinez has given special privilege to industries like oil and gas, industrialized dairy, homebuilders and mining at the expense of environmental protection and the local economy.
Immediately following a press conference that took place in front of the Capitol Roundhouse at 12:30 p.m., the groups and other concerned New Mexicans hand-delivered the report to Governor Martinez’s office and demanded that she give advocates for small business, working families and the environment a seat at the table that has otherwise been reserved solely for big industry.
“New Mexicans are fed up with Governor Martinez’s secret task forces, industry appointments, and decisions that do little to address the dire economic and environmental problems we face,” said Food & Water Watch New Mexico organizer Eleanor Bravo. “We are here today to remind Governor Martinez that she works for us – the residents of New Mexico – and not the big industries that threaten our health, our environment, worker rights, and home-grown small businesses.”
The report, Private Profits, Public Threats: How Governor Martinez’s Big Business Agenda Endangers New Mexicans, describes how in her first six months in office, Martinez has rapidly worked to roll back the rules and regulations that protect New Mexico’s natural resources, public health and working families. It explains how her “Small Business-Friendly Task Force” does not truly represent small businesses, and how Martinez’s big business agenda is particularly harmful to lower income, predominately Hispanic communities in New Mexico.
The report chronicles many examples of how Martinez has ignored the concerns of health and environmental advocates to favor the agendas of the big industries that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to her gubernatorial campaign. Examples include:
• Undermining pollution controls for factory farms
• Attempting to abolish the Water Quality Control Commission
• Paving over the Pit Rule that protects groundwater from oil and gas drilling waste
• Pocket-vetoing local food procurement bill
• Firing the State Labor Board
• Vetoing unemployment benefits
“Governor Martinez has launched an aggressive attack on the safeguards on which New Mexicans depend to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe,” said Sandy Buffett, Executive Director of Conservation Voters New Mexico. “In our view, her systematic dismantling of these safeguards threatens the security of our families and communities.”
The report and corresponding fact sheets in Spanish and English can be downloaded for free at: http://foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/private-profits-public-threats/
Contact: Anna Ghosh, 415-293-9905, aghosh(at)fwwatch(dot)org