Local Solar Access Fund Next Steps

The 30-day session of the 56th Legislature ended at noon on Thursday, February 15. Like many of you, we needed a bit of a break to process it. We certainly hope that someday soon we will see a more modern legislature that pays staff and legislators year-round to do their important work, one where the pace of lawmaking that impacts all our lives will be more humane, sane, healthy, and allow all New Mexicans to have the opportunity to meaningfully participate in these democratic processes to improve our futures.

Sadly, as many of you know, the Local Solar Access Fund that we are so dedicated to achieving stalled during the session after its appropriation did not make it in the budget. We are committed to engaging thoroughly throughout the interim process the rest of this year to get this appropriation in next year's budget and position ourselves for success in the next 60-day legislative session. We will need your help to organize and advocate all along the way. Please fill out this form to share with us ways in which you would like to stay involved and engaged throughout this process and with our ongoing work.

We are immensely grateful for the leadership, courage, and commitment of our fantastic sponsors, House Majority Whip Reena Szczepanski, Senator Harold Pope, Senator Nancy Rodriguez, Representative Ambrose Castellano, Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero, Representative Anthony Allison, and Representative Tara Lujan. Please take a moment to join us in thanking them.

And thank YOU! Thank you for every little thing you did to support the Local Solar Access Fund. Thank you for all of your calls, emails, advocacy, support in committee, testimonials, letters, and opinion pieces. Every single thing you did to support the fund had an impact. We are grateful for the time you took to engage with the legislative processes and spread the word about this important policy.

We are genuinely inspired by the broad-based support the Local Solar Access Fund received in such a short period of time. The bill was a product of a summer focus group and widespread community outreach and research that engaged communities, leaders, and people dedicated to improving our communities and our planet. The bill was only a fully-formed concept in August of this year, created from all of this community engagement. Between then and now, hundreds of people and more than 40 organizations, including local and tribal governments and school districts, became enthusiastic and active supporters of the Local Solar Access Fund. We are going to build upon that enthusiasm and support over the next year to pass the Local Solar Access Fund, and we look forward to collaborating with you to achieve this.

Here are a few letters to the editor and op-eds from around our great state that spell out why the Local Solar Access Fund is important and needed in so many of our communities:

• State Fund Would Help Communities Invest in Solar Energy - Harry Browne, Grant County Commissioner 
  

• A Case for the Local Solar Access Fund - Paul Campos, former Santa Fe County Commissioner 
  

• Extend Success Stories With Money for Local Solar Access - Nicholas Prince, Silver City Town Councilor 
  

• Emergency Responders Need Reliable Energy - Steven Jenison, District Chief of the Dixon Volunteer Fire Department in Rio Arriba County 
  

• Legislature Can Expand Solar Opportunities - Laila Atalla 
  

• Make Solar Easier to Access Across New Mexico - Stephen Schmidt

If you follow us @publicpowernm on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, you can see more testimonials in support of the Local Solar Access Fund. Learn more about the fund here.

Lately, it seems like disillusionment with the state of democracy at every level throughout our world is more contagious than COVID-19, and we feel it too. But we're not shaken by it. We're not going to stop. We know that better worlds are possible. We know that we can work in community for better outcomes. We know that we can build power. We know that we will be successful, and that it will take a lot of hard, dedicated work and organizing. We know that community-owned renewable power will empower our communities and support so many goals including creating a healthy and sustainable future for our kids, the generations ahead, and the planet, while reducing costs, and creating local resilience, stability, security, and prosperity. We know that when people build power and work together to improve our communities, we achieve great things, and create better futures for all of us.

Thank you for being a part of this work with us and for everything you do for your communities. Enjoy the sunnier days ahead.