gwenneth Dolan's weekly report from inside The Roundhouse is coming up in a little over 10 minutes so in 1971 voters believed that a healthful environment was important enough to enshrine in the State Constitution and for decades scientists have been telling us that to avoid catastrophic climate change we need to cut greenhouse gases immediately um yet New Mexico has producing a record amount of oil and gas um 10 times what we were even just in 2010 and um Daniel as an elder why why do you think we just don't do the things that we're supposed to do I guess it's it's just the character and personality of society you know on the one aspect part of the citizens just have one house house and other folks have three or four houses here and there rather than just keeping the one house and then the the aspect of chasing the almighty Dollar in in in the Navajo perspective you only use what you need and and uh That's the basis you know a lot of the folks in in the um Eastern agency you know they they've taken on a pastoral lifestyle raising sheep and goats and cattle and and and not to have the pursuit in in in the Navajo um lens use only what you need you are the stewards of the land water is life air is life the land is our mother mother earth and so though and the sacred the sacred places were water seeps out of the Mesa Springs those are sacred places and and so those are the aspects that uh uh Navajo and Indigenous people hold closely to uh the guide that and again part of the aspect that were taught make sure don't let the fire burn out don't lose the language don't lose the culture and those are the aspects that really uh in in the naevo um symbolism that's what it is keep the fire going because as young folks when um parents went off to Town the Young Folks were told keep that fire going in the Hogan and and and that's a a real um um life teaching uh moment and and so those are the aspects that really keep keeps the culture and the language going and uh keeps the life ways going so Josey I was really interested in what you were talking about with the perian Basin and I just I wanted to ask you know I feel like when we hear from legislators when we read the newspapers it seems like people in the the Carl's bed area are monolithically supportive of the oil and gas industry is that not necessarily the case in that region well I certainly think that oil and gas has become really a culture piece in that area and I think in a lot of the surrounding areas of the perian Basin such as Aria and Hobs it's really you know like I said a culture kind of something that they of course rely on so it's become very ingrained in everyday lives because oil and gas comes in and they sponsor a lot of things they sponsor everything down to the schools to Simply like the locals farmers markets and I find that very interesting you know that it's such a a culture at this point but I think when people come to speak for the peran Basin we hear from these legislators we hear from presidents CEOs and I think they're talking from personal interest we don't very often get to hear from people who are living with these things outside of their homes because in in the organizing work that I've done so far I've spoken to individuals who are truly truly suffering we're starting to get a lot of earthquakes out there because fracking is causing earthquakes and with an increase of earthquakes you know that's scary and not only earthquakes but sink holes there's a lot of sink holes in the carlbad area because carlbad is over cars terrain meaning there are a lot of caves in the area meaning it's more susceptible to sink holes so I think there are a lot of things like that that we don't really get to hear about when people come to represent Carl's bad right so Gail this lawsuit is really Innovative nobody's ever challenged the state for not abiding by this provision um you were also the lead attorney on the yazzi Martinez case can you give us a thumbnail of that case and then kind of the similarities and differences between the two yes so in the the yazzi case the what the court found was that the state has a constitutional duty to act to put in place a system of Education that is sufficient for all School AG children and likewise under the pollution control Clause the state has a positive duty to act and to put in place a system of pollution control um that works for the benefit for the maximum benefit of all the people in our state and I think both Josie and Daniel talking about a tsunami of production and Jose pointing out that under this current Administration oil production has doubled well climate leaders don't frack and climate leaders don't oversee a massive increase in oil and gas production climate leaders follow the science and say we need to be phasing out oil and gas right and I think our state is so reliant on the money from oil and gas and we talk so much about that money that we don't talk about the harm the pollution that comes with that oil and gas money and production and so we really have to turn to our Constitution which is the fundamental law of the land of our state and hold the state accountable to this positive duty to step up to the plate and put some real controls to protect our public health and our environment so young people in Montana had sued the state over a institutional right to a clean environment and they won that case right um what has changed in Montana well I know now that in Montana with the um the the Court's ruling which is basically saying that the um the state in Montana now has to consider climate impacts from its uh it's energy production that there there are now things happening um in state politics to sort of shift that law and to make that happen and that's what we're looking for here is essentially and what's happening in the the yazzi case right once the court rules that the state has this constitutional Duty and the state is not fulfilling its constitutional Duty the work turns back to the political branches to the administra the Executive Branch the administrative agencies to the legislative branch to then step up and do their work to control pollution and we're asking the court just like in the yazzi case to maintain what's called jurisdiction to maintain authority to ensure that those other branches of government comply with their constitutional Duty and that's what's happening in Montana now okay and we're going to in our next segment we're going to talk specifically about the legislature but I'm just curious how how did the New Mexico state government respond to your lassu they responded the way we thought they would they basically responded and said um this is uh a political question it doesn't belong in the courts it you know go back to uh the political branches and fight there for what you need and our response to that is that no in fact this is a constitutional question and it is a basic tenant of our three branches of government of our democracy that the court has the authority and the duty to to interpret and to enforce the Constitution and that's what the plaintiffs in this case are asking the court to do okay thank you all we need to take a quick break but we'll be back in 15 minutes to talk about oil and gas reform in the legislature