New Mexico conservation groups say goals to address climate change need to be written into law.
State Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, has reintroduced the Clear Horizons Act, which stalled last year over affordability.
The bill would codify the state’s climate targets by requiring state regulators to craft new rules for meeting a 2030 target of cutting emissions 45% below 2005 levels.
Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, said the bill complements the governor's 2019 executive order setting strict caps on greenhouse gas emissions, accelerating renewable energy, and holding large polluters accountable.
Feibelman says she believes the legislation responds to the growing costs New Mexicans already pay for climate change. "We are paying for fire damages, fires that put lives and livelihoods at risk," said Feibelman. "We're seeing extreme drought, failed snowpack, curtailment of irrigation, new mosquito species."
Assuming climate targets are achieved by 2030, the Clear Horizons Act would require that emissions be cut 75% by 2040 and to net zero by 2050. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, now serving her last year of two terms, supports the legislation.
By one estimate, New Mexico has spent more than $256 million in just the past year responding to fires, floods and other climate-driven disasters.
Emissions from New Mexico's oil and gas industry is the biggest hurdle to reducing emissions, but also the state's biggest economic driver. With the production boom in recent years, the industry opposes the legislation.
Despite that, Feibelman noted that the state has reduced emissions 29% since 2005. "Doing things like requiring oil and gas to keep methane in their systems, bringing on cleaner cars and cleaner buildings, more renewables in our electric sector," said Feibelman, "and so, this legislation will help us take the next steps."
According to a report from Clean Jobs New Mexico, the state's clean-energy sector grew faster in 2024 than the overall state economy, and 27% since 2020. That's the second-highest job growth rate in the nation this decade.