Democracy for New Mexico

Action Alert: Environmental Issues at Monday's ABQ City Council Meeting

From Environment New Mexico:
Fewer words spoken about politics are more important to remember than that quote from Tip O'Neill, longtime Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress: "All politics is local." There's a great opportunity for progress on key environmental issues coming up at the local level next week -- right here in Albuquerque.

This coming Monday, April 21, the Albuquerque City Council* will be considering measures dealing with:

• developer subsidies for sprawling subdivisions
• toxic mining on our public lands**
• conserving New Mexico's limited water supply

That's a lot to cover in one meeting, and we need your help! By attending next week's City Council meeting you'll be letting your Councilor know that you support the important environmental protections being considering and improve their chance of passage.

Please RSVP today for next week's City Council meeting and let me know you'll be joining me in standing up for New Mexico's environment by clicking here. Here are the details for the meeting:

• WHAT: Albuquerque City Council meeting
• WHEN: 5 PM, Monday April 21, 2008
• WHERE: Vincent Griego Chambers, Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Building, 1 Civic Plaza, Albuquerque, NM, 87101 (map)
• WHO: You and your friends and family that care about New Mexico's environment

We expect the meeting to last several hours and you'll be able to provide public comment on each bill by signing up in the back of the room. You'll also be able to meet up with other local Environment New Mexico members. Look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,
Lauren Ketcham
Environment New Mexico Advocate
LaurenK@environmentnewmexico.org
www.environmentnewmexico.org

P.S. Please feel free to share this message with your family and friends.

BACKGROUND
* For the agenda of the City Council meeting visit: here
** For more information on our work to protect public lands from harmful mining practices visit: here

Technorati Tags:Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque City Council, Environment New Mexico, mining, water

Guest Blog: Mikhail Gorbachev in Santa Fe

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, alternative newspaper managing editor and gallery owner of Santa Fe, who participated in yesterday's press conference in Santa Fe featuring the former President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. President Gorbachev also appeared at a fundraising dinner to benefit the Santa Fe Institute and Global Green USA, and spoke to a standing room only crowd at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

On Monday I asked former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev if, after November, he would please be so kind as to lead and advise the next USA President as to how to get out of our quagmire. This is Gorbachev's reply, through a translator:

“The Middle East is what the entire world is watching. If things go badly for the USA, things go badly for all of us. America must not abuse the trust it has from its allies, much of which has virtually stopped. I am glad to see in this election a resurgence of interest in international affairs. As I will say in my talk tonight, judging from the USA’s military budget, your nation seems to be at war with the world, and I sense that the American people don’t like this at all. The size of your weapons budget is larger than it was at the peak of the Cold War, and larger all of the rest of the nuclear nations put together. Why do you continue to build these weapons? This is amazing to me!

I think that [former Secretaries of State] George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, [former US Senator] Sam Nunn, and [former Secretary of Defense] William Perry have put together recently a very interesting plan in this regard, for which I appreciate their initiative.

With a background of conflict, military budgets in the USA continue to grow, and you produce more weapons. The next president must show courage and responsibility to resist increasing your arms expenditures. Most serious nations in the European Union are studying the proposal by Schultz and Kissinger, and the USA should heed this proposal.

You must bear in mind, that many nations find it difficult to trust America if it insists on maintaining its weapon superiority.

After January 1, 1986, when I proposed an abolition of Nuclear Weapons, there was an immediate reaction, that many didn’t trust me, because of the USSR’s massive ground forces and conventional weapons. I replied by making some large cuts in spending for conventional weapons, and eventually we signed a treaty in this context in Paris.

So I would put the same question to America and to Americans!”

*****

At the beginning of today’s Press Conference in Santa Fe, Gorbachev defended Putin’s concern over USA building extensive missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, but said that it was good that Bush and Putin took the time to recently meet, once before Bush leaves office.

He also stated that the USA needs to “elect a President who gets along with the world, and doesn’t brandish a big stick and make threats.”

This is “up to the American people to persuade its leaders, and this burden can’t be shouldered by others.” After 15 years of “pushing” since leaving office in 1992, Gorbachev now believes that most world leaders and heads of state are “lagging,” and that what we need next is “planetary glasnost.”

He is encouraged by the progress in Russia of the political party he started, the Union of Social Democrats, given that more than 100 nations have the same kind of party, the Social Democrats. He said the history of the USSR was a 70 year experiment with Communism in its extreme Bolshevik form, and that Russia had “paid the price” for doing so.

Gorbachev reminisced on Yeltsin being pressured by the International Monetary Fund and a few US Think Tanks which came to impose on Russia a free market approach, which did a lot of good. He called it the “Washington Consensus” that was really the opposite ideology and effect of Bolshevism.

*****

I have met and talked with several Nobel Peace Laureates, as well as several others I thought should have won that honorable prize. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 95 individuals and 20 organizations since 1901.

The Laureates I have exchanged extensive correspondence with include His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and Kofi Annan. I have talked at great length with Jody Williams.  I asked Oscar Aria Sanchez, former-and-now-again President of Costa Rica, to help create a branch in Santa Fe of the United Nations University for Peace; Dag Hammarskjold’s nephew Knut was on the Board of Honorary Advisors of this conception, as was Gandhi’s grandson, Arun, and Einstein’s granddaughter, Evelyn. So was former USA Secretary of Interior, Stewart Udall.

As an organization making a huge difference in the world, Doctors without Borders is my highest inspiration daily in my work to get the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, aspartame, off the market by rescinding its approval to be sold.

Mairead Corrigan of Ireland was the first Nobel Peace Laureate I talked with for several hours at the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. I also had a very long conversation with Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and I have always thought he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Certainly, George Mc Govern deserves something like a Nobel Peace Prize, for his lifetime of pacifism.

Yet somehow, today, former President Mikhail Gorbachev was the most compelling. I am certain that because I was asking on behalf of tens of millions of Americans and several billions people in hundreds of nations, that he really will help to advise and guide the next USA President to bring the USA out of the Middle East, and to end the war in Iraq.

There really is no choice.

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe. Guest blogs provide our readers a chance to express themselves on topics of interest to the political discourse here, and may or may not express the views of the DFNM blog. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Technorati Tags: Mikhail Gorbachev Santa Fe New Mexico Middle East U.S. Military disarmament

A Message to Our Grandchildren: Stewart and Lee Udall

Stewart Udall flanked by son Tom Udall and wife Jill at polling place in 2006

Recently a friend emailed me an essay (included below) by Stewart and Lee Udall. They are the parents of Rep. Tom Udall, who's running for U.S. Senate in New Mexico. Written as a letter to the Udall grandchildren, the essay was also published in the High Country News. It struck me that the piece is a must read for all of us, regardless of our age, ancestry or any other factor. If we live on the Earth, and intend that others who come after us will be able to do so, we need to keep the thoughts and goals described in the letter foremost in our minds, hearts and souls.

The message seems especially timely today, with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev having offered similar advice yesterday in Santa Fe about the urgency of the need for individuals and nations to work together on the emergencies we face:

Only through countries working together can the world solve its military conflicts, epidemics, fights for resources, poverty and the global environmental crisis — those problems are just too big, Gorbachev said. "We need planetary glasnost, global glasnost," he said, noting his call for openness in government in the 1980s. "We still can do a great deal" to save the planet, he added.

... "Right now priorities in the world are distorted, they're skewed," he said, adding that it's time for "real, radical change" in the way countries work together through organizations like NATO and the United Nations.

A Message to our Grandchildren, High Country News
ESSAY - by Stewart and Lee Udall, March 31, 2008

Among other accomplishments in a life of public service, Arizona native Stewart Udall was perhaps the most influential secretary of Interior ever. He served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations from 1961 to 1969, and played a part in some of the nation's landmark environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. He now lives in Santa Fe, N.M., where he and his wife, Lee, penned this letter to their grandchildren.

My dear ones, your generation will face a series of environmental challenges that will dwarf anything any previous generation has confronted. I'm hoping to add some insights of my own based on things I learned as a policymaker in the 1950s and '60s, when I observed and participated in some monumental achievements and profound misjudgments.

As a freshman congressman in 1955, I regrettably voted with my unanimous colleagues for the Interstate Highway Program. All of us acted on the shortsighted assumption that cheap oil was super-abundant and would always be available. This illusion began to unravel in the 1970s, and it haunts Americans today.

Oil lies at the epicenter of a critical energy crisis. Petroleum is a finite resource and is the most precious, versatile resource on the planet. Cheap oil played a crucial role in the development of American power and prosperity, and sustains the military machine that dominates the world today. Oil is now nearing a historic transition that will alter the civilization Americans have come to take for granted.

As world oil production reaches its apex and begins its inevitable decline, it will have a radical impact on everyday American life. It will take bold political leadership and awareness on the part of individual citizens to craft a full-scale, creative response. I watched with admiration in 1974 as my friend, President Gerald Ford, persuaded Congress to adopt a 55 mph speed limit to reduce our reliance on imported oil. He also got a law passed which mandated production of more fuel-efficient automobiles.

I am convinced that the American people will tighten their belts if a president forges a national strategy to stretch the life of our oil reserves and to adjust to a long-range plan of energy conservation.

Energy efficiency must be the rallying cry. Higher oil prices are already serving as a wake-up call. Despite an utter lack of leadership from the White House, a few progressive states and cities are building light-rail systems to serve urban residents and commuter trains to connect their communities.

I urge you to be stalwart supporters of any projects that promote fuel efficiency and conservation for all citizens.

You also must contend with the carbon dioxide problem. Once it is released into the atmosphere, this gas has a long life (approximately 100 years), spreads over the entire globe, and acts as a blanket that warms all parts of the earth.

The United States and China are responsible for producing over 40 percent of the CO2 that is altering the earth's atmosphere. Consequently, these two nations have a moral responsibility to be in the forefront of any global campaign to develop new technologies to cut the emissions of this damaging pollutant.

I have recently proposed that these two countries join together in a 50/50 research venture, and assemble teams of engineers and scientists to work together to develop technologies to capture carbon as it emerges from coal power plants. These teams would perfect technologies to isolate the carbon and transport it through pipelines to storage sites in the deep ocean or in depleted oil and natural gas fields. The success of such international cooperation would set an example that could spur development of new supplies of renewable energy.

All climates would benefit from advances produced by such an enterprise: Today, China has the most polluted air in the world and suffers the most premature deaths from gross air pollution. These same teams of scientists could also devise technologies to capture the deadly pollutants that shorten the lives of millions of people in all parts of the world.

Even though scientists can solve many technological problems, a word of caution is in order. I learned during my government service that even the most gifted researchers couldn't perform technical miracles. The skilled engineers at the Interior Department built the first direct current line to transmit huge blocks of electricity from hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to Los Angeles by simply flipping a switch. But the same engineers couldn't develop a cheap technique to desalinate seawater.

One further example will dramatize my point. In the summer of 1969, after our astronauts completed their round trip to the moon (a brilliant but narrow feat), most Americans were overwhelmed by the promises that became the mantra of that exciting moment. The slogan, "This proves we can do whatever we want to do," influenced the mindset of Americans and generated a vision of a future with no restraints or limits. President Richard Nixon, quickly rebuked for his wild rhetoric by the Rev. Billy Graham, characterized the accomplishment as "the greatest week since the creation of the earth." A gusher of extravagant prophecies followed, predicting that a new planet of superabundant resources had magically come into existence followed. Though scientists regarded such predictions as Alice in Wonderland speculation, they were generally ignored; dissent was not welcome during this moment of triumph.

Meanwhile, Americans' vision of the future was warped; they believed, falsely, that technologists could perform miracles that would solve any future energy problems. Ignored was the nation's ever-increasing dependence on oil produced by other countries. Worse yet, this new vision offered assurances that our own oil wells would never run dry, and it has persuaded many of the current leaders of our nation that global warming is a myth.

Having said that, technology may yet help solve some of our current problems. Some of the world's best architects and designers are already working on changes in the design of buildings and cities, which, they believe, will reduce requirements for electricity by as much as 50 percent by 2050.

Such advances won't be enough, however. Americans must finally cast aside our notion that we can continue the wasteful consumption patterns of our past. We must promote a consciousness attuned to a frugal, highly efficient mode of living. In closing, I leave you with these thoughts, and hope you will hold to these ideals throughout your lives:

Foster a consciousness that puts a premium on the common good and the protection of the environment. Give your unstinting support to all lasting, fruitful technological innovations. Be steadfast enemies of waste. The lifetime crusade of your days must be to develop a new energy ethic to sustain life on earth.

In the 1960s, when the carbon problem and the exhaustion of the world's petroleum were still beyond our gaze, I advocated a new ethic to guide our nation's stewardship of its resources. I realize now this approach was too narrow, too nationalistic. To sustain life on our small planet, we will need a wider, all-encompassing planetary resource ethic based on values implemented by mutual cooperation. This ethic must be rooted in the most intrinsic values of all: Caring, sharing, and mutual efforts that reach beyond all obstacles and boundaries.

Go well, do well, my children. Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth.

Carry our love in your hearts, Stewart and Lee Udall, 2008

Technorati Tags: Tom Udall Stewart Udall NM-Sen Albuquerque New Mexico Mikhail Gorbachev Tom Udall Stewart Udall NM-Sen Albuquerque New Mexico Mikhail Gorbachev

NM-01: UNM Environmental Groups Host Heinrich Event

Join the UNM Wilderness Alliance and the Environmental Law Society for an afternoon with Martin Heinrich, candidate for Congress:

Wednesday, April 16, 12:00-1:00 PM
SUB, Upper Level, Lobo Room
** snacks and coffee provided **
Click for Flyer - Pass It On

In the first congressional district race, Martin Heinrich is the clear choice for green voters. He has been endorsed by Conservation Voters New Mexico, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club. Some of his accomplishments include:

Building a Clean Energy Future
As an Albuquerque City Councilor, Martin spearheaded initiatives to make New Mexico a leader in
energy efficiency and alternative energy like wind and solar power.

Saving Wild Places
Martin has been instrumental in protecting New Mexico’s wild lands, including the Valle Vidal, Ojito
Wilderness, and hundreds of acres of open space in the Sandia Mountains and Rio Grande Bosque.

Protecting Our Community
As Natural Resources Trustee for the State of New Mexico, Martin worked with the Governor to
clean up contaminated land and protect our natural environment.

Technorati Tags:Martin Heinrich, Albuquerque, New Mexico, NM-01, University of New Mexico

Two Bad for New Mexico: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund Kicks Off Campaign Critical of Wilson and Pearce with TV Ad

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has designated New Mexico's U.S. Senate race as its number one priority in the 2008 election cycle. Starting early to garner attention before political ads start airing nonstop this year, the Action Fund's first ad began running today on broadcast TV in the Albuquerque media market and will continue for a week. Check it out above.

The ad highlights the dismal environmental and energy voting records in Congress of both Republican candidates in the Senate primary race -- Rep. Heather Wilson (below, with Bush) and Rep. Steve Pearce (right) -- and ties their votes to large campaign contributions from oil and gas interests. Documentation on the claims is provided at the new website Two Bad for New Mexico, where you can also make a donation and sign up for updates on ways you can get active in the effort.

In a conference call with local media this morning, the Action Fund's President, Rodger Schlickeisen, and others from the group provided background info on the group and its the decision to make the NM race the Action Fund's top priority. The Fund first became directly involved in electoral politics in 2006, when it targeted and was instrumental in the defeat of supposedly unbeatable 14-year incumbent Rep. Richard Pombo (CA-11), an enemy of the environment who chaired the House Resources Committee. The Action Fund spent $1.8 million in that effort. The group will conduct a similarly robust effort here.

“Pearce and Wilson have spent their time in Congress bowing to the wishes of special interests, instead of protecting the interests of New Mexico’s citizens and the American Southwest,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. “They sit on key committees charged with protecting our air, land and water, yet both have atrocious conservation records that have earned them a well-deserved spot on our target list.”

“The 2008 elections are a wonderful opportunity for New Mexico voters to elect a pro-environment senator who will protect the interests of New Mexico’s citizens, instead of those of the special interests,” continued Schlickeisen. “In the process, they can also rid the New Mexico delegation of two of the environment’s worst enemies, Pearce and Wilson, who time and again have used their privileged positions to thwart legislation that would make America greener, safer and more prosperous.

Rep. Tom Udall: Part of the Solution

“The environmental challenges we face are great indeed and we need serious leaders to embrace them. Pearce and Wilson are part of the problem in Washington; Tom Udall is part of the solution. He is a true conservation champion and we are proud to do our part to help elect him to the Senate.”

More Action on the Way
The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund will be periodically running additional ads from now until the election on both broadcast and cable TV in New Mexico, and will be tied into an integrated campaign supporting Rep. Tom Udall's candidacy and working to defeat Wilson and Pearce. The effort will also include radio ads, direct mail and door-to-door canvassing.

Voting Records Tell the Tale
You can find detailed information on the voting records of Wilson, Pearce and Udall in the group's Wildlife Conservation Report Card, which examines votes on key measures related to clean energy and other environmental issues. The poor voting records of Pearce and Wilson are the polar opposites of Rep. Udall's outstanding record of consistently putting the public interest before private interests.

The Action Fund formally endorsed Udall for Senate in February. Udall has a score of 100% on the Defenders Action Fund Conservation Scorecard this year and a long record of support for clean, renewable energy and other efforts to combat the harmful effects of global warming.

In contrast, Wilson has a lifetime score of only 14% on key environmental votes. Pearce's record is arguably the worst in Congress -- rated at a rock bottom 0% by Defenders on environmental legislation. One example: Pearce was among only 35 other House members to vote against a recent bill directing the FTC to investigate possible price gouging by oil companies.

President Rodger Schlickeisen indicated that the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund may also get involved supporting pro-environment candidates in New Mexico's three open races for U.S. House seats, depending on who wins in the primaries. We'll keep you posted.

To see our previous coverage of the 2008 U.S. Senate race in New Mexico, visit our archive.

To get involved in Tom Udall's campaign, visit his website.

Commemorating Dr. King: Green Jobs Can Create Pathways Out of Poverty

From NMYO: April 4 marks the 40th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. To commemorate the event, staff and volunteers from New Mexico Youth Organized (NMYO) will travel to Memphis, TN this weekend for the Dream Reborn conference. Dream Reborn is an effort to honor the legacy of Dr. King by simultaneously addressing the issues of climate change, job creation and civil rights. 

NMYO Executive Director Keegan King explained, "Green jobs-blue collar jobs in green sectors of the economy-can create pathways out of poverty for young people. This goes to the core of Dr. King's teachings about equality for all. By providing job training for such things as solar panel installation, manufacturing, water treatment, recycling and sustainable agriculture, we can develop promising career paths right here in Albuquerque."

Over the weekend, NMYO and thousands of others will delve deeper into the concepts behind green jobs and their connection to civil rights, as well as how to get training programs started in cities across the country.

For more information about New Mexico Youth Organized and their campaign to promote green jobs,  check out their video above or 1SkyNewMexico.org.

Join "An Inconvenient Ride" in Santa Fe

From the City of Santa Fe:
A Call to all Santa Feans and Others with Bikes:
Join “An Inconvenient Ride”
When: 3:30 PM on Wednesday, April 9
Where: Harry’s Roadhouse, Old Las Vegas Highway

The City of Santa Fe invites Santa Fe cyclists and anyone with a bicycle to join students from Seattle on Wednesday, April 9, as they raise awareness of communities that are making a tangible difference in the environment. The students have received a ceremonial tree in Washington DC and will ride through cities, including Santa Fe, that have signed on to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ climate protection program. On their journey, the students will collect over 10,000 signatures from Governors, Mayors and students in a show of support, and commitment, to protecting the environment.

The riders will be arriving in Santa Fe on Wednesday, April 9, and entering Santa Fe from Old Las Vegas Highway. The City of Santa Fe invites the community to join them for a convoy into the city starting at Harry’s Roadhouse at 3:30 PM. A police escort will be provided for safety. The ride will conclude at the Santa Fe River between Don Gaspar and Galisteo.

The City of Santa Fe would like to thank Harry’s Roadhouse for its generosity in feeding the high school student cyclists and the Santa Fe Sage Inn, which is providing complimentary rooms for the students.

For more information about “An Inconvenient Ride” visit: www.inconvenientride.com.

Obama Would Grant High Level Role to Gore

Another superb reason to support Barack Obama. According to an AP report:

Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming. At a town-hall meeting, Obama was asked if he would tap the former vice president for his Cabinet to handle global warming.

"I would," Obama said. "Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He's somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I'm already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now."

Given Gore's less than friendly relationship with the Clintons, I highly doubt Hillary would have Gore anywhere near her administration, in any role. Sad, but true.

Citizen Group Wins Federal Lawsuit Against NNSA for Unlawful Document Delays

From Citizen Action:
Citizen Action, a public interest group, received a victory in a federal lawsuit against the National Nuclear Security Agency/Albuquerque Operations Office (NNSA) for engaging “in a continuing pattern and practice of unlawful delay” in furnishing documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Brack states that “In light of the Kafkaesque review process adopted by Defendant, it is not surprising that the delay in this case stretched many months beyond the statutorily-prescribed time frame.” The decision describes a “labyrinthine process for reviewing FOIA requests” that does not justify the delays even for “situations involving national security, sensational, or complex issues.” The decision orders an agreement to be made between DOE and Citizen Action within 30 days for “responding to pending requests and for processing future requests.”

Citizen Action Attorney Richard Mietz, Santa Fe stated, “This is a complete vindication of my client’s right to receive information under the FOIA in a timely manner.” 

This is the second time in a year that Mr. Mietz has successfully persuaded a federal judge that the Albuquerque NNSA office engages in a pattern and practice of unlawful delay when responding to citizen requests for information about the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities. 

The documents sought by Citizen Action seek a wide range of information about Sandia National Laboratories. Dating from requests going back to 2004, these include:

• Ten-Year Site Plans for future activities at Sandia National Laboratories
• High level radioactive waste and release of contamination from nuclear weapons production buried in a Cold War waste site known as the Mixed Waste Landfill and many illegal dumpsites referred to as “Yardholes” scattered about Sandia
• Environmental information about groundwater monitoring, air monitoring, earthquake faulting, radioactive contamination of plants and animals at Sandia

Citizen Action Director, Dave McCoy stated, “This decision should send a strong message to NNSA’s management that NNSA can no longer use delay to create secrecy about Sandia’s dangerous operations. This decision acknowledges that provision of information may be useless if it is not timely. The public needs to obtain information for commenting on Sandia’s current plans. There is a Sandia facility wide permit request pending approval. That would include: open air burning of high explosive wastes; production of neutron generator tubes that leak tritium without air monitoring; leaving radioactive and toxic waste contamination in place without monitoring groundwater over our drinking water, and; Sandia’s plans for future nuclear weapons related production that will generate hundreds of thousands of pounds of hazardous and radioactive waste.”

The decision also builds on and goes beyond an earlier federal FOIA decision in favor of Nuclear Watch in Santa Fe. The Citizen Action decision sets forth a requirement to avoid future violations and to timely furnish the documents from over ten outstanding Citizen Action FOIA requests. Judge Brack cited language from the Nuclear Watch case that “observed this process ‘makes a mockery of the 20-day target set by FOIA and violates congressional intent.’”   

Citizen Action continues to also battle with the New Mexico Environment Department lawsuit to obtain a 2006 TechLaw report about contamination at the MWL. The Environment Department is suing Citizen Action in state court to keep the report secret. McCoy said, “One can only question what the Environment Department hopes to achieve by suing a public interest organization instead of the polluter.” The New Mexico Supreme Court recently denied a request for a stay on the release of the TechLaw report to the Attorney General and Citizen Action’s attorney.

Learn How to Bird-Dog in NM

From the groups listed below:
In these upcoming elections we have the opportunity to have a great effect on our local and national political landscape. According to the Friends Committee on National Legislation, all eyes will be on New Mexico in 2008! We are a presidential swing state with four congressional seats up for election. Special interest groups, personnel and money are flowing in. We the people need to be the ones who will bring the important New Mexico issues to the forefront.

To make sure your issues are front and center on election day, learn how to effectively "bird-dog." Arnie Alpert from the American Friends Service Committee will be coming to New Mexico to give three training events. The term "bird-dogging" means following candidates and tracking their positions in order to make sure that the issues important to you are part of the campaign agenda and in the forefront of media coverage. This is a great opportunity to learn a technique to raise public awareness and shift the political will in the direction of peace, sustainability, nuclear abolition. The training events will be in Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque:

Taos: Friday, April 4th
Kit Carson Electric Cooperative Board Room
1118 Cruz Alta Road
Registration at 5:30 PM and closes at 8:00 PM

Santa Fe: Saturday, April 5th
Registration at 2:00 PM and closes at 5:00 PM
Santa Fe Unitarian Universalist Church on Barcelona

Albuquerque: Sunday, April 6th
Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center
202 Harvard Southeast
Registration at 5:00 PM and closes at 7:30 PM

Suggested donation - $10

For more information contact:

• Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety - Joni Arends - jarends@nuclearactive.org - (505) 986-1973
• NM Conference of Churches - Holly Beaumont - habeaumont@aol.com  - (505) 471-2962
• Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice - (505) 268-9557
• Faithful Security - Jessica Wilbanks (505) 758-1206 - jwilbanks@faithfulsecurity.org