New Mexico remains steadfast in clean energy goals despite Trump's coal orders

Despite President Donald Trump’s efforts this week to revive coal as a major power generator, New Mexico regulatory officials and utility companies don’t seem tempted to return to the fossil fuel source that once powered, and polluted, much of the state.

New Mexico at one point had three coal-fired power plants. Only one of the generating stations is still running today — the Four Corners Generating Station near Fruitland — and is on track to fully shut down in 2031.

The Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), the largest electricity provider in the state, has planned for nearly a decade to pull away from coal as it would be cheaper for customers in the long run. It aligned well with the state’s renewable energy goals and standards that require public utilities to achieve net-zero emissions on electricity generation by 2045. PNM plans to be fully carbon-free by 2040, according to the company’s website.

Meanwhile, Trump on Tuesday signed four executive orders promoting the struggling U.S. coal industry. The president’s orders allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to continue producing electricity to meet U.S. energy demands, put a moratorium on coal policies issued by former President Joe Biden and direct the executive branch to ensure its positions are not discriminatory against coal.

“This is a very important day to me because we’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned,” Trump said at the White House, flanked by more than two dozen helmeted coal miners, before signing the executive orders, “despite the fact that it was just about the best, and certainly the best in terms of power, real power.”

In response, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, co-chairs of the U.S. Climate Alliance, said in a joint statement Tuesday that the federal government can’t “unilaterally strip states’ independent constitutional authority.”

“We are a nation of states — and laws — and we will not be deterred,” they said.

New Mexico’s energy agency doesn’t expect Trump’s orders will impact New Mexico’s energy policies, said spokesperson Sidney Hill, with the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. In 2019, New Mexico passed the Energy Transition Act, which established renewable energy targets for utilities by 2030.

“The utilities then decided on their own that lowering their reliance on coal as a power source was in their best economic interest,” Hill said. “Other utilities across the country seem to have made similar decisions, which is why coal has become a much smaller part of the nation’s power generation portfolio. This executive order is not likely to reverse those business decisions.”

PNM plans to pull out of the Four Corners Generating Station in 2031. In a statement to the Journal, a PNM spokesperson said the company is still working to meet carbon-free goals outlined in the Energy Transition Act, though the spokesperson didn’t specifically elaborate on the impact of it moving away from the Four Corners power plant, its last coal-powered generator.

While the state doesn’t regulate that power plant — the Navajo Nation does — it seems unlikely that the other two former coal stations will resume operations.

The San Juan Generating Station was demolished last year, and the Escalante Station stopped power generation in 2020. New Mexico Environment Department spokesperson Drew Goretzka said reviving coal-fired generation at the plants would require “extensive, and prohibitively costly, renovations.” He added that the plants are either being retrofitted for clean energy purposes or demolished.

“Regardless of the future of those facilities, New Mexico utilities remain committed to achieving or exceeding the state’s ambitious emissions targets,” he said. “Our state will continue advancing science-based policies — such as addressing air pollution, greenhouse gases and promoting clean transportation fuels — to achieve shared goals.”

New Mexico could also potentially lose some of its northern and northwestern workers with expertise in the coal industry to neighboring Arizona should the Cholla Power Plant resurface.

Trump specifically mentioned that plant, which is scheduled to retire later this month, in his speech on Tuesday. Arizona Public Service Co. spokesperson Mike Philipsen told the Journal in a statement the company is evaluating what Trump’s executive orders mean for the plant, which stopped generating electricity at last month “in accordance with federal regulations and due to increasing costs that have made the plant uneconomical to operate.”

“We plan to preserve the site for potential future generation uses, including the possibility of nuclear power,” Philipsen said. “At this time, APS has already procured reliable and cost-effective generation that will replace the energy previously generated by Cholla Power Plant.”