The race for New Mexico Governor and Lieutenant Governor is underway. Candidates came together to discuss health and climate in forum held by Healthy Climate New Mexico, HCNM.
Out of the 10 known candidates, 6 were present, all running in the Democratic primary. Candidates Sam Bregman and Deb Halland, both running for governor, were represented by surrogates.
The questions asked dealt with New Mexico health and climate, and how the candidates plan to address these issues. Questions were provided to each of the candidates beforehand.
Sam Bregman was represented by his policy advisor, EricShurnurer. This is what he responded when asked about the support to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New Mexico.
“Our plan recognizes that New Mexico needs to segway off of oil and gas and become a leader in clean energy. And we believe New Mexico can become one of the leading states in the country on that. It's not going to happen overnight,” Shurnurer said.
Candidate Ken Miyagishima was mayor of Las Cruces for 16 years. He mentioned his efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city. He did not receive the questions before the forum; he mentioned this in his opening remarks.
“So, as far as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, you know I did support the plant closer in Farmington. The coal plant. In Las Cruces, we were one of the the first cities to support electric vehicles,” he said. "The city does have a fleet of electric vehicle buses. And then we do have energy efficient home programs tomake that the peopledon'tlose their energies. And make the city cleaner.”
Deb Haaland was represented by surrogate Demis Foster. Haaland is running for Governor. Foster said that Haaland was a national leader in caring for extreme heat.
“She actually contributed to the administration's extreme heat plan that put policies in place that protected workers that did most of their work outside. Provided rebates on cooling units and heat pumps for families dealing with extreme weather. Increased shade intree deprived communities. And provided infrastructure funding to adapt housing for higher temperatures,” Foster said.
Secretary of State, Maggie Toluse Oliver is running for Luitenant Governor she has been involved in New Mexico's Government for 20 years and used to be an environmental advocate working for the League of Conservation Voters for New Mexico. When asked abouthow she would assure New Mexican families that she is doing what she can to protect their health and stop the negative effects of climate change shementioned her dad who was a doctor and her familiarity with public health.
“What do we need to be doing? We need to be expanding public health programs. Again, not cutting out funding, not making it harder for us to do these programs. Increasing funding and increasing programs and public health programs especially to address things like asthma, allergies, and heat related illness, mosquitos, etc.,” she said. “Investing in resilience infrastructure to prevent families from disasters.”
Jackie Lee Onsurez is mayor pro tempore in Loving, New Mexico and is seeking to be Lieutenant Governor. When asked about his support for geothermal technologies, he said he supported them and that there was a strategic way to approach the adoption of them.
“New Mexico generates a significant amount of energy right now, through renewables. I think it's about; we're doing really good; it's at about 50%.But we need to do a little bit more and empower families to gain the benefits and not just the industry. And what I think is that we need to help families,” Onsurez said.
State Senator Harold Pope is running for Lieutenant Governor. He serves senate conservation, so he is familiar with many topics that were addressed during the forum. Here is what he had to say when asked about funding for the state “Environmental Tracking Program” at the Department of Health.
“Without the data how are we even able to really make the right decision. So, we have to have this; we can't be allowing it to be defunded. So, I want full restoration, I support the Environmental public health tracking program,” he said. “I also think we need to create a climate and public health program within the Department of Health.”
Candidates were also asked about keeping New Mexico competitive and about the creation of an extreme Weather Resilience fund. The answers to these questions and the full forum can be found on the Healthy Climate New Mexico YouTube channel.
