All Pueblo Council of Governors condemns US Senate vote advancing permitting reform bill

Members of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents 19 New Mexico Pueblos, on Tuesday reiterated their opposition to a federal permitting reform bill that advanced in the U.S. Senate on Monday evening. 

Members of the council attended the vote in Washington, D.C., in person and watched the vote unfold that advanced the bill toward a U.S. Senate floor vote. The Pueblos are opposed to provisions in the 494-page permitting reform bill leaders say will exclude tribal input on energy and other development projects on sacred lands. 

They remain opposed despite changes that sponsors, including U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), made to the bill over the weekend. Heinrich has touted the bill as a way to unlock more renewable energy developments, thereby cutting emissions, but bill opponents say any climate benefits come at the cost of more fossil fuel projects and data centers. 

Council Chairman Joey Sanchez, in a statement Tuesday, said the Pueblos delivered statements of opposition to the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act directly to senators in advance of the vote.

“The Senate went ahead anyway,” Sanchez said. “That is a government-to-government relationship running in one direction. Nobody consulted the Pueblos before this bill was written, and the changes made since don’t fix that.”

The U.S. Senate ultimately voted 73 to 25 to open additional amendments to the bill and take it a step closer to a floor vote, which will likely occur in the coming days. The bill, if passed, will also be voted on in the U.S. House, where its fate remains uncertain. U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Melanie Stansbury, both New Mexico Democrats, have said they oppose the bill as written. U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján voted against advancing the bill on Monday night.

The council members, in their Tuesday statement, said they remain committed to fighting the bill.

“It was hard to sit in that gallery watching this unfold, and now, we have to work harder to accomplish our goal,” Tesuque Pueblo Gov. Mark Mitchell, the Council’s vice chairman, said in a statement.  “We are not giving up because we are doing this for our children and the entire world.”