Friday, January 17, 2025

Decision is a Response to Complaint Filed by the Mountain View Coalition & NMELC 

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it is launching an investigation into the City of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque City Council to determine whether it discriminated against a low-income community of color—Mountain View—when it passed two bills purging and putting a moratorium on action taken by the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board in December 2023. 

The Mountain View Coalition has alleged that the City Council’s actions violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits the City from using federal funding to discriminate against residents on the basis of race, color and national origin.

The Mountain View Coalition (MVC) is made up of the Mountain View Neighborhood Association, Mountain View Community Action, and Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, and is represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

The letter from EPA’s Office of External Civil Rights (OECRC) announcing the decision to launch an investigation can be accessed here. …

Read full release.