I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Juan Reynosa, a 27-year-old field organizer with New Mexico Youth Organized, was in Washington D.C. today testifying before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
In the days leading up to his testimony, Reynosa, a native of Hobbs, New Mexico, was a participant in the Power Shift 09 national convention, which organizers say has drawn more than 10,000 young activists to the nation’s capital.
According to press release announcing Reynosa’s testimony, the local activist gave a very personal pitch for why the country needs ramp up the clean energy economy. The release quotes him as saying:
I was born and raised in Hobbs, where my father has been working in the same oil field for the past 30 years without hardly any advancement in his job and has been forced to move to keep his job because of the decline of oil production in the area. My family, and all of America, is ready for a new energy economy, because it will create new jobs, boost our economy with new sustainable industries, and help us move from dirty, energy industries into cleaner and more sustainable, energy industries.
NMYO's Juan Reynosa
A profile on Reynosa published in the Nation magazine back in December offered a preview for the arguments he made to Congress today. That’s because NMYO’s past work has translated into proposed legislation before…
A recent NMYO and 1Sky study found that nationally, the energy efficiency and renewable sub-industry alone supported 8.5 million jobs with more than $47 billion in tax revenues in 2006. NMYO and community allies relied on the study to help craft a policy bill with the city legislators in Albuquerque that proposes to train more than 100 young people for green jobs next year. NMYO is also working with state legislators to introduce similar bills throughout New Mexico next year. That’s good news for the 1.7 million youth nationally who were not in school and were out of work in 2005.
From that same Nation article, we also learn that Reynosa has quite the motivational streak.
We are all very capable of doing great things, and those opportunities are out there waiting for us. And once you get involved, there is a snowball effect — everything gets bigger and better.
Reynosa was selected to testify on behalf of New Mexico and the Southwest, according to the release.
