Supreme Court: Governor not above law

SANTA FE (KRQE) - The State Supreme Court ruled against Gov. Susana Martinez's administration in delaying the publication of certain pollutions rules that were passed late last year.

Rules must be open to the public before they take effect, the justices said.

The state Environmental Improvement Board, appointed by former Gov. Bill Richardson, passed a number of regulations late last year including rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to control dairy discharge into ground water.

But days after taking office, Martinez ordered to delay the publication of those rules for 90 days, so new rules could be reviewed. Several groups challenged the administration's decision, saying the governor had no authority to stop publication. On Wednesday, the high court sided with the environmentalists.

"We think it bodes ill to the governor's promise to run an open government," said Bruce Frederick, attorney for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. "They withheld important papers from us until the last minute, and they tried to stop publication of these rules under the table without notice to anybody."

Martinez said throughout her campaign that rules to curb industrial carbon emission gases would hurt New Mexico businesses and families. Frederick claims Martinez's opinions on the cap-and-trade rules and her close relationship with dairy lobbyists spurred her to stop publication.

Martinez denies such claims.

"We never had an intent to keep those regulations from being published," said Martinez. "As an incoming administration, we wanted to see what was there, we wanted to review what was being said being prepared for publication, and we're going to continue to do that."

Several lawmakers have filed bills to suspend certain rules passed by the former environmental board including the cap-and-trade rule.

Martinez fired all seven members of the Richardson-appointed board days after she took office. Martinez announced four of her nominees to replace them: James Casciano, an environmental health program manager for Intel; Timothy Morrow, a rancher in Capulin; Deborah Peacocks, an attorney specializing in property rights and environmental law; and Elizabeth Ryan, a Roswell attorney who also specializes in environmental law. Martinez said she will announce her other three nominees on Thursday.