Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, second from right, at the UN climate change conference in Scotland. (Courtesy of the governor)
Copyright © 2021
SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday she was “energetic” about New Mexico’s role in fighting climate change and optimistic about the steps companies are taking to address the problem after being in Glasgow, Scotland, this week. for a United Nations conference.
Lujan Grisham played an active role in the climate change conference, spoke at several events and moderated a panel discussion with heads of state and government of other countries.
She also received praise from President Joe Biden’s top climate advisor, who said the methane emission regulations announced by the federal environmental protection agency this week are based on similar greenhouse gas regulations enacted in New Mexico.
However, back home in the nation’s second-highest oil-producing state, the governor is still faced with a balancing act as youth climate change advocates condemned Lujan Grisham for not moving fast enough and some fossil fuel proponents have accused her of hypocrisy for traveling was by plane to Scotland.
In an interview from Glasgow on Thursday, the Democratic governor said it takes time to lay the foundations for a cleaner future.
“You can’t just turn on a switch – there is a transition,” Lujan Grisham told the Journal. “I can’t set up the entire infrastructure overnight.”
However, she insisted that New Mexico was “on track” to meet future needs for more electricity as coal-fired power generation phased out and new renewable energy mandates were introduced.
“People around the world are looking at what we are doing,” said the governor.
Lujan Grisham traveled to Scotland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference with a delegation that included State Environment Secretary James Kenney, Secretary for Economic Development Alicia Keyes and Secretary for Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Sarah Cottrell Propst, according to the governor’s office.
While the trip is an official state affair, Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said the travel expenses will be paid for by the Climate Registry, a nonprofit group with a vision to “make the history of global warming,” according to their website.
Since taking office in 2019, Lujan Grisham has ordered the state to join a national coalition to combat the effects of climate change and banned the routine venting and flaring of natural gas.
She also signed the state’s Energy Transition Act in 2019, which requires New Mexico’s Public Service Company and public utilities to move to carbon-free power generation by 2045.
Going forward, Lujan Grisham has urged lawmakers to pass bills addressing clean fuel standards, a legal framework for the development of hydrogen energy, and the target of net zero carbon emissions in all sectors of the state’s economy by 2050.
These bills will all be part of the governor’s agenda for the 30-day term beginning January, Sackett said Thursday.
However, Lujan Grisham’s administration has also worked with fossil fuel industry leaders on several bills, and the governor recently spoke at the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association’s annual meeting.
This led to a protest outside the downtown Santa Fe hotel where the event was taking place. Some proponents held up signs and asked the governor, “Which side are you on?”
Meanwhile, Larry Behrens, a spokesman for Power the Future, a group opposed to renewable energy mandates, asked why the governor and other members of the New Mexico delegation were not attending the conference given the high cost of gas.
Lujan Grisham, who is standing for re-election next year, has defended her government’s handling of energy issues while recognizing New Mexico’s unique position as a top oil producer and state that has seen one of the nation’s largest increases in renewable energy production in recent years had decade.
While the governor admitted that she still has much work to do to sell her agenda to New Mexico lawmakers, her administration’s policies of targeting greenhouse gas emissions appear to have won admirers in Washington, DC
During a panel discussion on Tuesday at the Scotland climate conference, Gina McCarthy, the White House’s national climate advisor, admitted that New Mexico’s environmental protection agency had followed the example of national methane emission regulations.
“We did it because it is right, because you tested it, and because the technology is available and inexpensive,” McCarthy said, referring to Lujan Grisham.
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