SANTA FE, N.M.— The New Mexico Supreme Court agreed today to hear a landmark lawsuit over the state’s failure to protect public health and the environment from the harms of oil and gas pollution, as required by the state constitution.

The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of Indigenous, frontline, youth and environmental organizations, and community members.

“We have hope that the Supreme Court will find that our state constitution guarantees our right to a healthy environment and upholds the requirement that the state protect us from toxic oil and gas pollution,” said Johnny Juarez with Youth United for Climate Crisis Action. “We brought this case to protect every New Mexican from the devastation caused by the state’s failure to control this filthy industry. It’s time the state lives up to that commitment.”

The lawsuit, Atencio v. State of New Mexico, is the first to challenge the state for violating the pollution control clause of the New Mexico Constitution. Article 20, Section 21 requires the state to prevent the “despoilment of air, water and other natural resources” and protect New Mexico’s “beautiful and healthful environment.”

With today’s decision, the court will be the final arbiter of the meaning and enforceability of the constitution’s pollution control clause and decide whether the plaintiffs can proceed to trial to prove that the state has abdicated its duty to control oil and gas pollution.

“We have a strong constitution in New Mexico and I’m confident the Supreme Court will uphold New Mexicans’ right to protection of our health and our environment,” said Gail Evans, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Fifty years ago, voters put that guarantee into the state constitution, requiring every leader to protect our air, land and water. This provision is intended to safeguard us from industry pollution and I’m hopeful the state’s highest court will affirm these protections for every New Mexican’s well-being and our state’s future.”

The coalition sued the governor, legislature and state agencies in May 2023.

The oil and gas industry intervened, saying that the plaintiffs’ request for greater pollution controls threatened the industry’s existence. After a trial court found that the plaintiffs had viable claims and ruled that the case could proceed, the state appellate court dismissed the case in June.

Oil and gas production in New Mexico has more than tripled in the past five years and increased more than tenfold since 2010. This surge of production has created devastating air, water and climate pollution in the San Juan Basin — part of the culturally important Greater Chaco Landscape — and the Permian Basin, one of the largest oilfields in the world.

Despite this unprecedented pollution and a constitutional duty to control it, decades-old exemptions in state statutes mean that the oil and gas industry is almost untouched by environmental regulation.

“Our constitution requires protection of our healthful environment, and yet the state continues to allow the industry to make our air unhealthy to breathe, and to waste and contaminate our precious drinking water, all for fracking,” said Mario Atencio, a plaintiff from the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation. “With our constitution, we hope to ensure that the state protects all of us from the harms of this dangerous industry.”

A favorable ruling from the Supreme Court would be a monumental step toward requiring New Mexico’s government to affirmatively address out-of-control pollution.

"I am glad that the Supreme Court still stands for the side of a just, fair, and constitutionally-grounded process that honors the requirement for the government to protect all New Mexicans from pollution,” said Reverend David Rogers, a pastor with First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and a plaintiff in the case. “This decision is good for all New Mexicans, our health, and that of generations to come."