Green Amendment
Green Amendments are constitutional amendments that guarantee the right of a state’s residents to a clean and healthy environment. More states are following Montana and Pennsylvania’s lead by placing the language in their Bill of Rights.
Overview
Support for environmental rights amendments continues to gain momentum across the country as many states pursue constitutional amendments ensuring the right to a clean and healthy environment. States vary on where in the constitution the amendments are proposed. Many states are following the lead of Montana and Pennsylvania by placing the language in the Bill of Rights, and are including other elements that meet the definition of a “Green Amendment.”
Green Amendments are a type of environmental rights amendment that liken rights to clean air and water to rights to free speech and religious expression. They serve to emphasize environmental health and safety as part of basic civil liberties. The term “Green Amendment” was coined and defined by lawyer and environmentalist Maya K. van Rossum, who, joined by seven towns, led a legal victory against fracking using Pennsylvania’s long-ignored amendment. In the wake of this victory, van Rossum founded the Green Amendments For The Generations organization and movement.
Key Facts
Green Amendments establish a constitutional mandate recognizing a healthy environment as an inherent, indefeasible, generational legal right of all citizens.
Passing a Green Amendment in every state across the nation can serve as an invaluable tool for communities facing disproportionate environmental burdens.
Green Amendments provide a backstop that can be used by community, public, government and even business interests to provide a check on government authority that overreaches and fails to protect environmental rights.
Current Legislation
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| SJR0037: Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the State Constitution Concerning Environmental Rights.View Source | Connecticut | Land | Green Amendment | Out of Committee | ||
| S.B.2478: PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE I OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO RECOGNIZE AND PROTECT THE INHERENT AND INALIENABLE RIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE TO CLEAN WATER AND AIR, A HEALTHFUL ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE AND HEALTHY NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS AND BEACHES.View Source | Hawaii | HI Sen. Mike Gabbard (D-HI-021) | Land | Green Amendment | Out of Committee | |
| HJR3: Environmental Rights, CaView Source | New Mexico | NM Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-NM-013), NM Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-NM-037), NM Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-NM-016), NM Rep. Joseph Hernandez (D-NM-004) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| H.B.551: AN ACT proposing to amend Section 1 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to the environment.View Source | Kentucky | KY Rep. Sarah Stalker (D-KY-034) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| HJR2007: A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Iowa relating to the right of the people to a clean environment.View Source | Iowa | IA Rep. Monica Kurth (D-IA-098), IA Rep. Sean Bagniewski (D-IA-035), IA Rep. J.D. Scholten (D-IA-001), IA Rep. Elinor Levin (D-IA-089), IA Rep. Mary Madison (D-IA-031) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| SCR1017: environment; constitutional amendmentView Source | Arizona | AZ Sen. Lauren Kuby (D-AZ-008) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| H.B.1932: PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE I OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO RECOGNIZE AND PROTECT THE INHERENT AND INALIENABLE RIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE TO CLEAN WATER AND AIR, A HEALTHFUL ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE AND HEALTHY NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS AND BEACHES.View Source | Hawaii | HI Rep. Mahina Poepoe (D-HI-013) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| SR2225: Joint Resolution To Approve And Publish And Submit To The Electors A Proposition Of Amendment To The Constitution -- Green Amendment (Proposes A Constitutional Amendment To Article 1 Providing For A Right To Clean Air, Soil, Climate, And The Environment’S Natural Values.)View Source | Rhode Island | RI Sen. V. Susan "Sue" Sosnowski (D-RI-037) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| HJR16: Natural Resources and the Public Estate AmendmentView Source | West Virginia | WV Del. Evan Hansen (D-WV-079) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| S.C.R.27: Proposes constitutional amendment to make State trustee of public natural resources and guarantee to the people other environmental rights.View Source | New Jersey | NJ Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-NJ-016), NJ Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-NJ-014) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| AJR114: Relating to: recognizing the inherent rights of nature and Wisconsin’s commitment to environmental stewardship.View Source | Wisconsin | WI Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-WI-020), WI Rep. Mike Bare (D-WI-080), WI Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-WI-019), WI Rep. Francesca Hong (D-WI-076), WI Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-WI-052), WI Rep. Russell Goodwin (D-WI-012), WI Rep. Supreme "Moore" Moore Omokunde (D-WI-017), WI Rep. Ann Roe (D-WI-044), WI Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-WI-078), WI Rep. Darrin Madison (D-WI-010), WI Rep. Angelito Tenorio (D-WI-014), WI Rep. Brienne Brown (D-WI-043), WI Rep. Karen DeSanto (D-WI-040), WI Rep. Joan Fitzgerald (D-WI-046), WI Rep. Joe Sheehan (D-WI-026), WI Rep. Sequanna Taylor (D-WI-011), WI Rep. Margaret Arney (D-WI-018), WI Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-WI-062), WI Rep. Christian Phelps (D-WI-093), WI Rep. Tara Johnson (D-WI-096), WI Rep. Ben DeSmidt (D-WI-065), WI Rep. Vincent "Vinnie" Miresse (D-WI-071), WI Rep. Lori Palmeri (D-WI-054) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| L.R.225: Interim study to examine the need for and implementation of a Green Amendment and the implications of adopting LR22CA, 2025View Source | Nebraska | NE Sen. George Dungan (NE-026) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| H965: Environmental Rights Constitutional Amendment.View Source | North Carolina | NC Rep. John Lowery (R-NC-047), NC Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-NC-061), NC Rep. Ben Moss (R-NC-052), Senior Advisor Jarrod Lowery, NC Rep. Kanika Brown (D-NC-071) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled | |
| HJR3: A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Iowa relating to the right of the people to a clean environment.View Source | Iowa | IA Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell (D-IA-049), IA Rep. Brian Meyer (D-IA-029), IA Rep. Monica Kurth (D-IA-098), IA Rep. Ross Wilburn (D-IA-050), IA Rep. Elinor Levin (D-IA-089), IA Rep. Larry McBurney (D-IA-044), IA Rep. Aime Wichtendahl (D-IA-080), IA Rep. Rob Johnson (D-IA-034), IA Rep. Daniel "Dan" Gosa (D-IA-081) | Land | Green Amendment | Introduced or Prefiled |
No matching bills.
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Related Resources
Green Amendment Fact Sheet
Green Amendments (often called “environmental rights amendments”) are self-executing provisions added to the bill of rights of a state’s constitution. They aim to put environmental health and safety on par with our other civil liberties. These amendments would provide general, legally defensible expectations as to what constitutes a healthy environment for citizens. Most notable are individuals’ rights to clean air, water, and a stable climate. The concept of state Green Amendments has been spreading since lawyer and environmentalist Maya van Rossum helped secure a landmark legal victory against fracking around the Delaware River watershed, using Pennsylvania’s long-ignored Green Amendment.
Online Resources
Fact sheet about how the green amendment can be an environmental justice tool.
View a law review article on Montana’s Green Amendment.
This webinar covers how Pennsylvania’s Green Amendment has been applied in several case studies.
Green Amendments and Environmental Justice
Green Amendments are a valuable environmental justice tool that help solidify the obligation of the state to ensure that decisions impacting natural resources do not infringe on current or future generations’ right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment.
A Tool for Advancing Equity
Green Amendments support avoidance of unfair targeting of communities of color, Indigenous communities, and low income communities - groups often disproportionately affected by poor air and water standards. (forthegenerations.org)
Air Pollution Inequity
Communities of color and low-income groups are currently at a higher risk of death from air pollution exposure compared to other populations in the United States. (nature.com)
Safe Water Inequity
Race, combined with ethnicity and language spoken, has been found to be the strongest predictor as to whether a community experiences longstanding violations and ineffective enforcement of the nation’s drinking water law, the Safe Drinking Water Act. (nrdc.org)
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