Along with Republicans Sen. Mike Lee (UT), Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (WV), and Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR), New Mexico’s senior senator, Democrat Martin Heinrich, has proposed legislation that would sacrifice everything our state holds dear and line the pockets of industry. It contains 77 distinct environmental attacks. This assault on regulation would reward big corporations that will always put quarterly profits ahead of a livable planet and future generations.

Here’s what you need to know about the so-called Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act:

• It would allow massive data centers, fossil fuel projects, pipelines, transmission lines, and huge fossil fuel power plants to be pushed through without significant public input and would limit the ability to fight them in court.
• It would let hyperscale data centers — many of which are fueled by enormous fossil fuel power plants — start construction and operation sooner, regardless of community opposition and environmental or cultural impacts.
• It would exempt new transmission lines — stretching across federal and state public land as well as private property — from important federal laws, opening the door to further harm to people, water, land, and cultural resources. This could allow data centers to connect more quickly to the electrical grid.
• It would eviscerate states’ and Tribes’ ability to protect their clean water from federally permitted development.
• It would weaken Tribal consultation, leaving most Tribal nations with no meaningful way to protect their sovereignty when faced with potential fossil fuel projects on their lands.
• It would gut the Endangered Species Act, potentially pushing cherished New Mexico critters like Mexican wolves, Gila trout, and New Mexico meadow jumping mice to the brink of extinction.
• Its massive rollbacks of the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and National Historic Preservation Act would make it less likely that community and Tribal concerns would be heard and respected, facilitate oil and gas development in the Greater Chaco landscape.
• Its gutting of bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act would strip crucial, decades-old tools used to combat destructive projects that threaten public lands, wildlife, water, and cultural heritage.
• It would create new obstacles to lawsuits challenging dangerous and destructive projects.
• Making matters even worse, the deal could lock in the Trump administration’s interpretation of bedrock environmental laws, hindering future administrations from restoring protections and undoing the damage.

Sen. Heinrich has a reputation as a conservationist with a love for outdoor recreation. He’s spent time on our public lands hunting and fishing to feed his family, just like so many other New Mexicans. This bill, negotiated in secret, would undermine everything we hold dear — along with his own legacy.