New Mexico took big steps forward this year on voting rights, free lunch for all kids, abortion rights and gender-affirming health care, creating a conservation fund and protecting against a dangerous plan to “temporarily” store all the nation’s highest-level nuclear waste.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Legislature and advocates should be proud of these advances. But glaringly and painfully absent was action to directly address the climate crisis.
The reality we face is that the Permian oil boom has escalated our state’s climate pollution since the governor took office in 2019 and made strong initial progress to address the climate emergency. A year after our state’s largest wildfire and with record flooding, air pollution and drought, New Mexicans deserve comprehensive action to protect our communities. As the nation’s No. 2 oil producer, New Mexico has an outsize climate impact. That should go for our solutions, too.
During the legislative session, Lujan Grisham asked advocates to support a much-weakened climate bill that lacked enforcement mechanisms and then ended discussions after we suggested a stronger path forward.
After the session, she vetoed five climate and clean energy tax credits that legislative leadership had carefully crafted. In a news conference, Lujan Grisham said: “The message to the Sierra Club: There’s more coming in the environmental space. New Mexico will continue to be identified as a leader.” Here’s what “more to come” must look like for climate preservation:
On an equitable transition: Transformational planning, community engagement and long-term investment to create opportunities for oil and gas workers for more sustainable, safe, good-paying jobs, and to ensure a meaningful and sustainable economy for all New Mexicans.
On oil and gas extraction (60% of state’s emissions): Require large sources, like oil refineries, gas-processing plants, compressor stations, manufacturing plants and landfills, to slash their health- and climate-harming pollution. Ensure methane gas and smog safeguards are working and that state agencies have sufficient budgets to inspect and enforce them.
Even with these safeguards, oil and gas methane emissions are creating untenable climate damage, so we must identify next steps to eliminate this pollution. Most importantly, we must map out the path to end our dependence on oil and gas, as the world’s scientists are desperately urging decision-makers at every level to do.
On hydrogen: Study after study has demonstrated that methane-fueled hydrogen causes more climate damage than burning gas directly, making the climate crisis even worse. The state’s “Hydrogen Hub” proposal should not include fossil-fueled projects. Even renewable-fueled hydrogen is only useful in a few hard-to-decarbonize sectors and poses many other risks. Public investments must instead focus on renewable energy, battery storage and other proven technologies.
On transportation (14% of state’s emissions): Take action in 2023 to pass updated Clean Cars and Trucks standards, ensuring more electric vehicles are available in New Mexico. The majority of New Mexicans want better access to money-saving EVs. These straightforward rulemakings should come before the more controversial, more complicated and less impactful “Clean Fuels” program, which has so far failed to gain legislative approval after three attempts.
On electricity (11% of New Mexico’s emissions): Give the Public Regulation Commission more authority to build on current law and speed utilities’ shift from polluting electricity sources. Require utilities to support bolder investments to electrify our cars, homes and buildings.
On buildings (3% of state’s emissions, plus electric use): Move now to update energy-efficiency building codes to the latest versions available. Require that all new buildings and parking facilities have solar.
The climate emergency threatens agricultural collapse; skyrocketing food prices; increased allergy, lung and heart disease; dwindling supplies of clean drinking water; and escalating wildfire and flooding. The impacts we’ve already experienced demonstrate that no amount of oil and gas income can justify exposing our families to this kind of landscape.
We can come together to build a thriving and healthy world for all our communities. But time is running out.
We need your leadership, governor.
Camilla Feibelman is director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter.
The Santa Fe New Mexican observes its 175th anniversary with a series highlighting some of the major stories and figures that have appeared in the paper's pages through its history.