This is the story of
Behind the El Paso Climate Charter campaign is a story of resistance and hope that belongs to the El Paso and frontera community—
After decades of frontline organizers and community members fighting environmental racism and local climate injustice, we have come together to build an initiative that is intentional about empowering our transnational community:
from El Paso County to Doña Ana County, and our sister city, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México.
As we know, pollution respects no borders.
Here is the story of the El Paso Climate Charter.
The El Paso Climate Charter Movement.
It all begins with…
SUNRISE EL PASO HUB ESTABLISHED IN 2019 TO FIGHT PRIVATIZATION OF ELECTRIC UTILITY
Sunrise El Paso, one of 110 active hubs across the nation within the national Sunrise Movement climate organization, was co-founded in 2019 by Miguel Escoto, driven to fight against the privatization of the sole electric utility in the El Paso border region of Texas.
The national organization Sunrise Movement provides an organizing platform to empower younger generations of climate activists in the pursuit of a Green New Deal and environmental justice in their communities across the nation, aligned with the global movement to address the ever-worsening climate crisis.
Because El Paso Electric Co. serves the greater El Paso metropolitan area as well as about 100,000 customers in New Mexico, the sale of the utility gathered the concern of many community members, especially those familiar or concerned with the consequences of a bank-owned, monopolized utility company.
THE $4.3B SALE OF EL PASO ELECTRIC CO. TO JP MORGAN CHASE BANK’S PRIVATE BANKING ARM, INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT FUND - IIF (2019)
In 2019, El Paso Electric Company, the electric utility local to El Paso County and parts of New Mexico, was sold to a private banking arm of JP Morgan Chase bank known as JP Morgan’s Infrastructure Investment Fund (IIF). Though community members expressed concern regarding the $4.3 billion dollar sale of the utility. El Paso City Council voted in favor of an agreement allowing the sale of the franchise to JP Morgan, creating a privatized utility in a Latine-majority, averagely low-income border community.
Ex-mayor Dee Margo, who carries long-time affiliations with wealthy property developers and local billionaire fossil fuel industry mogul, Paul Foster, broke the tied vote among City Council, leading to the evitable sale of the utility. Other communities directly impacted by the sale were not adequately included in the process of selling the utility, as local and regional leaders expressed disappointment in making this decision without their involvement.
Continue Reading Below ↴
Ex-mayor Larry Francis also gave public comment in 2019, expressing it was “a bad deal for ratepayers” (ratepayers meaning El Paso Electric customers). In an article written by Sara Sanchez (El Paso Inc. Staff Writer), businessman and former chair of Texas Transportation Commission, Ted Houghton, among several others, described the need to further investigate the repercussions of selling the utility, and independently funded a study to review “the financial aspects of El Paso Electric’s sale to JP Morgan’s Infrastructure Investments Fund”.
Houghton commissioned Ken Anderson, former member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, to conduct the study.
Houghton shared: “A few of us are going to fund this thing and turn it over to the mayor, the council and say here, here it is, chew on it and see if this is really where you want to go[.] They are personally funding the study [...] because no one else in El Paso is looking into the deal – except for those who have skin in the game, including El Paso Electric executives and shareholders who will profit from the sale.”
Francis also shared the following quote with Sanchez:
“This company doesn’t build automobiles or furniture or deliver groceries or have competition. It’s one of two things that is required to live — water and electricity[.] It’s different than every other company, and the conditions and environment it has to operate under is different.”
“It needs to be accountable to the public.” -Larry Francis
On July 29, 2020, El Paso Electric Co. was officially sold to JP Morgan’s private banking arm, IIF.
WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR NEXT CHAPTER—
THE PEOPLE’S OPPOSITION TO THE EXPANSION OF
NEWMAN 6 FRACKED-GAS POWER GENERATING STATION (2020-2021)
With the sale of El Paso Electric Co. came the appointment of a new West Virginian CEO, Kelly Tomblin. El Paso Electric board members, including Frederick “Rick” Francis, previous board member of Western Refining Inc. and CEO of WestStar bank, (both Paul Foster-owned or previously owned entities), appointed Tomblin as the new CEO.
Under Tomblin’s leadership, the proposal to expand a fracked-gas power generating station, known as Newman 6, was made soon after her appointment. Located along the state line between Northeast El Paso and Chaparral, New Mexico, the expansion of Newman 6 was determined to “ increase the station's emission to 1,335,500 tons per year” – ‘emissions’ referring to pollution released from the fracked-gas plant.
Sunrise El Paso organizers teamed up with frontline community members, community leaders, local organizations, climate scientists and researchers, activists, and movement lawyers to speak out against the proposal via the community-driven No Newman 6 campaign. The No Newman 6 coalition organized effectively throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, virtually attending El Paso City Council sessions, hearings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Public Utility Commission of Texas, and made their voices heard.
Frontline community members in Chaparral and parts of Northeast El Paso had expressed outrage at the proposal to expand the facility, increasing their exposure to emissions already producing devastating environmental outcomes and enabling a public health crisis in their part of the community.
Dr. David J. Garcia, Chaparral community member and member of Chaparral Parents in Action, and his wife, Executive Director of Chaparral Parents in Action, Ida Garcia, were consistent advocates throughout the campaign, speaking out against the expansion of Newman 6 which had already, in its pre-expanded state, perpetuated environmental racism, harm, and injustice in their community. The Garcia family lives less than a mile away from the Newman 6 fracked-gas power generating station.
In 2020, Dr. Garcia shared this quote on Earthworks’ blog as a guest writer:
“We oppose 40 more years of Dirty Energy in our communities and all the emissions it will entail. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the leading greenhouse gas causing the climate crisis. If the expansion is built, Newman 6 would increase the station’s emission to 1,335,500 tons per year. In many cases, the average citizen of the area does not fully grasp that amount of pollution. I tried explaining this sheer amount of gas[s]es to a friend. He asked, “Is that a lot?” To answer his question, I used the following analogy:
If I order 25 tons of sand from “JOBE Sand & Gravel Company,” JOBE would have [to] send an 18 wheeler semi-truck loaded to capacity to drop 50,000 pounds (25 tons) in my backyard. That amount of sand in my backyard would take me 3 to 4 hours to spread with my Backhoe Kubota Tractor. If I [were] to give a man a shovel and [wheelbarrow, it] would take him 8 hours or more to move the sand. Therefore, with 25 tons to each 18-wheeler semi-truck, it would take 53,420 semi-trucks for JOBE to transport 1,335,500 tons of sand.
“1,335,500 tons is the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we would have to endure every year if Newman 6 is built.”
-Dr. David Garcia, Chaparral Parents in Action
A SETTLEMENT IS REACHED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST NEWMAN 6
On August 17, 2021, a settlement was reached between El Paso Electric Co. and Chaparral Community Coalition for Health and the Environment as well as Sierra Club in the fight against Newman 6. The most recent challenge here was advocating against air permits for the expansion of Newman 6 before the TCEQ. The Chaparral Community Coalition was challenged in court and questioned by El Paso Electric Co. appointed lawyers.
It was determined by movement lawyers that the costs of continuing to battle El Paso Electric Co. may not outweigh the benefits that could stem from a settlement, as said lawyers determined that the expansion of Newman 6 would be inevitable and could not be stopped– not even by the Court of Law.
Here is what resulted from the settlement:
A four-year moratorium on constructing any new fossil fuel projects
The Newman 6 site will not be used for future fossil fuel construction after Newman 6 is expanded
Commence abandonment applications for Newman Unit 1 or Newman Unit 2 and Rio Grande Generation Station Unit 7 with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission
Forced emissions reduction from EPE to “immediately seek an alteration of the applicable permits to reduce the allowable tons per year of nitrogen oxides (“NOx”) and carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions from Newman Unit 6 by 40% from the proposed permit.”
Purchase of VOC emission credits: “EPE will commit $500,000 to buy VOC emission offset credits to offset 110% of actual VOC emissions from Newman Unit 6.”
Funds for a community project designated to the Chaparral Community Coalition, who will have the authority to determine how funds are spent, and shall include pollution reduction or mitigation measures, with Sierra Club lawyers serving in an advisory role
In the few months to follow, the Chaparral Community Coalition began to explore ways to reinvest in their community with the settlement funds to 1) mitigate the harm of the devastating impacts of the Newman 6 generating station, and 2) prevent further harm from impacting Chaparral and sister cities in El Paso County, Doña Ana County, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México.
The path to achieving these goals became clear: reinvest in the community through Climate Action.
In the Summer of 2021, prior to the Newman 6 settlement, Sunrise El Paso and Ground Game Texas began an organizing relationship, strategizing ways to produce a ballot initiative for the community that would intersect direct democracy with climate action.
In the Fall of 2021, post-Newman 6 settlement, the Chaparral Community Coalition met with Sunrise El Paso to discuss the distribution of funds and how the coalition would be reinvesting in the community.
The Chaparral Community Coalition had decided: part of the settlement funds would be allocated to Sunrise El Paso to begin the endeavor of a community-led and community-conscious initiative that would later be known as the El Paso Climate Charter.
THE BIRTH OF THE EL PASO CLIMATE CHARTER
Sunrise El Paso brainstormed solutions with Ground Game Texas to confront local climate injustice; most significantly and importantly, with the insight and direction from frontline community members, climate leaders, movement-driven lawyers, and beloved activists from our frontera community.
The El Paso Climate Charter consists of creation of a Climate Department and appointment of a Climate Director; solarizing city property; creation of sustainable, clean jobs; water conservation and protection from exploitative practices by the fossil fuel industry; climate disaster mitigation, preparedness, and response; and encourages the municipalization of our local electric utility, El Paso Electric Co.
In addition, the Climate Charter proposes a unique Climate Commission, made up of frontline residents, to hold city government and utility companies accountable for their practices and decision-making in the community.
The El Paso Climate Charter language was finalized in January 2022, and the signature-gathering phase of the campaign began in March 2022.
LISTEN TO THE 40,000 ✴
LISTEN TO THE 40,000 ✴
HOW THE COMMUNITY DEFENDED THE EL PASO CLIMATE CHARTER AGAINST UNELECTED CITY OFFICIALS
Many months later, nearly 40,000 signatures -exactly 39,156 signatures- were submitted to the El Paso City Clerk’s office on July 25, 2022.
On August 2nd, 2022, the city government attempted to postpone the signature verification process, possibly delaying an election on the Climate Charter until 2025 instead of 2022. The City Clerk’s office, which operates under the supervision of City Manager, Tommy Gonzalez, presented a slide to City Council suggesting the signature verification process would take 100 days, well past the deadline needed for the Climate Charter to make the November 2022 ballot. The community showed up and spoke out against this plan that would indisputably sabotage the Climate Charter.
Ground Game Texas Political Director and former Assistant City Attorney in the City of Austin, Mike Siegel, provided public comment recommending that the city use a statistical sampling technique that the State of Texas allows by law via the Texas Election Code to determine signature validity on ballot petitions submitting over 1,000 signatures by testing a randomized sample of 25% of the signatures gathered.
City Council compromised with Sunrise El Paso and Ground Game Texas, as the council had been working on city charter amendments which would also be placed on the ballot.
The proposal: move all city charter amendments to the May 2023 election.
This consideration was provided as a city charter may only be amended every two years in a home-rule municipality in the State of Texas. (El Paso is designated as a home-rule municipality or city, which means the city may operate independently from state government without superseding state legislation, enforcing local self-governing laws.)
City Council also required that the City Clerk provide a representative of the Climate Charter coalition with updates on the signature verification process.
Sunrise El Paso and Ground Game Texas agreed– given all charter amendments would then be placed on the same ballot, and the Climate Charter election would not be postponed to 2025 after 40,000 El Pasoans were already anticipating a November 2022 election on the climate charter measure.
Siegel commented in an article written by El Paso Matters’ Danielle Prokop: “We don’t want the city clerk to say ‘we don’t have the resources to count this’ as a reason a measure signed by nearly 40,000 El Pasoans doesn’t make the ballot.”
In the article, Prokop also acknowledged and identified the following:
“Texas law does not require a city clerk to validate and certify charter amendment initiative signatures within a set period of time.
A petition of 20,000 or more signatures typically takes “12-15 days from the date the petition is received by the City Clerk” to certify, according to the Austin city clerk’s office website.
The city of El Paso’s website does not provide information regarding charter amendment initiatives.”
El Paso Climate Charter Campaign Manager and Sunrise El Paso Organizer, Ana Fuentes Zueck, also commented:
“This is 39,000 community members who refuse to accept the current status of environmental destruction and are brave enough to envision an El Paso with clean air, drinkable water[,] and a bright future.”
On November 11, 2022, the Climate Charter petition’s signatures were verified, qualifying it for the May 2023 ballot.
TAKING OUR POWER BACK
We will not allow another day to go by in which our communities continue to be terrorized by the fossil fuel industry, by big money, by environmental racism, or by leadership that fails to protect and sustain our communities.
As a community, we are taking our power back through this Climate Charter campaign. We are working to bring green jobs to El Paso, build solar power, conserve water and protect its quality, address pollution head-on in our communities, fight against environmental racism and inequity, encourage a municipalized electric utility, and so much more through this people-led initiative.
PROXIMITY TO THE PERMIAN BASIN “CLIMATE BOMB”
Because of El Paso’s proximity to the Permian Basin, we must take action to protect our community from further exploitation by the fossil fuel industry. The Permian Basin is a region in Texas most vulnerable to oil and gas development, a ticking time “climate”-bomb, often referred to as the Permian Climate Bomb, whose wide-ranging impact would further devastate communities from the Gulf Coast in Texas to New Mexico.
The Permian’s oil and gas production has increased more than 5x in the last decade.
A quote from permianclimatebomb.org :
“While production, exports and plastics all pose unique threats to frontline communities, decades of regulatory failure and insufficient environmental enforcement have enabled Permian oil and gas operations to become some of the dirtiest in the world.
The intensity of drilling, water, sand and chemical use, and the lack of regulatory oversight, has turned parts of the basin into an industrial wasteland; decreasing the quality of life for residents, threatening local agriculture, ranching, tourism and recreation, and relegating the basic health and safety of residents as an afterthought to the industry’s pursuit of growth.”
THE FIRST STEP TO A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
AN EL PASO CLIMATE CHARTER
The El Paso Climate Charter would be the first of its kind to be passed in the State of Texas, making El Paso a new, unprecedented leader in Climate Action, but we need your help.
On May 6, 2023, the El Paso Climate Charter will be on the ballot for election, and we need you and yours to show up at the polls if you are an El Paso resident to vote YES! to an El Paso Climate Charter!
Will you join us in the fight for Climate Action?
Vote Yes to the El Paso Climate Charter Prop K on May 6, 2023.