Heinrich says ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ could devastate New Mexico’s clean energy jobs, raise bills

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” could “destroy” New Mexico’s clean energy industry, resulting in mass job loss, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich warned at an event in Albuquerque Friday.

The “OBBB,” signed into law July 4, will dismantle Biden-era tax credits for wind and solar power, both for businesses and households.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency,” but his administration has prioritized traditional fossil fuels such as oil and gas over renewable energy.

“Reliance on so-called ‘green’ subsidies threatens national security by making the United States dependent on supply chains controlled by foreign adversaries,” Trump said in a July 7 executive order that penalized renewable companies reliant on components coming from countries like China. “Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts to unreliable energy sources is vital to energy dominance, national security, economic growth, and the fiscal health of the Nation.”

New Mexico made a bet that renewable energy would be profitable under President Biden — the state produces 11 times more energy than it consumes. But getting rid of tax breaks for wind and solar power amid increased demand will only drive up the cost of energy, Heinrich said at Gridworks, an Albuquerque solar energy company, flanked by energy and policy officials.

“I think we’re just in a moment of a perfect storm that is going to hit everyday New Mexicans and people across the country in their electric bills,” Heinrich said.

New Mexico, the third-largest energy producing state in the country, could see wholesale electricity prices surge by $340 million in the next decade without tax breaks for low-cost renewables, according to the nonpartisan climate policy think tank Energy Innovation, cited by officials at the Friday event. Individual electric bills could increase by $170 a year by 2030 and $220 by 2035, according to the report.

“When the bills go up, it’s not by accident,” said Southwest Energy Efficiency Project’s New Mexico representative and former Heinrich staffer Alex Eubanks. “It’s because the tools that were keeping energy affordable were deliberately stripped away.”

In 17 counties in New Mexico, households spend up to a 10th of their income to pay their energy bills, Eubanks said. In five counties, households spend a quarter or more of their income on power.

The solar power industry “quickly” felt the reverberations of Trump’s mega budget bill, said Amberly Martinez, assistant operations manager at Solar Works Energy, an Albuquerque solar power installation company.

“This is going to be our engineers (who) are without jobs. These are going to be solar panel installers, our electricians. This impact is going to be felt very, very deeply,” Martinez said.

Friday afternoon, Heinrich — the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources — was set to visit Sandia National Laboratories’ main campus in Albuquerque. Sandia announced in June that it planned to lay off up to 510 employees by early fall, something Heinrich told reporters he’d “never seen” in his career. The defense lab’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget showed $0 in funding for renewable energy work.

“As much as they say, ‘This has nothing to do with the current administration,’ I just don’t think that holds water,” he said. “I think this has everything to do with the current administration.”