OPINION: Our climate and economy need stability

President Donald Trump’s Iranian war is sending gas prices through the roof, despite our state being one of largest oil-producing regions in the world. And the royalty income to our general fund that might increase temporarily is cold comfort when we’re trying to balance our family budgets. 

Energy stability leads to economic stability. The price of wind and solar is low, reliable and stable. In New Mexico we now generate half of our electricity with renewables that can power our homes and even cars. The fuel is free and backup batteries are deeply recyclable. 

Our weather also needs stability. This month Roswell began one of the hottest early springs in history, with temperatures spiking to 90 degrees. And statewide we’ve had the hottest winter in 131 years. This would have been a freak occurrence in 1895, now it’s a pattern with each year hotter than the last. 

There is essentially no snowpack in the state and throughout the West. This means no spring runoff, curtailed irrigation, potential failure to deliver the water we owe to Texas, and Colorado River delivery reductions to Albuquerque, forcing us to use groundwater instead.  

More taxpayer money than ever goes to climate disasters that grow in intensity every year. In the 30-day session, legislators appropriated money to help buy family homes in Ruidoso that are now in the danger zone of flash floods that follow ferocious fires in bone dry forests. 

The Legislature wisely understands that oil won’t always be there. They have been socking away royalties in interest-earning funds that stabilize our state income, moving us from an extraction-dependent economy.

But the Legislature did not demonstrate this same wisdom when it came to putting Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s climate change executive order into law. The Clear Horizons Act would have codified climate goals that have been working for the last eight years. 

And, much like the fossil fuels that spew climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere, the oil and gas industry aggressively pushed misinformation on legislators and the public. Clear Horizons died in the Senate, leaving our economy and climate at the whim of President Trump.  

The bill set the overall target with details to be established in an expert, evidence-based, rule-making session, unique to New Mexico. Here’s how the process works. 

First, the New Mexico Environment Department consults with all potentially impacted polluters, stakeholders and community members to draft rules. The rules would only have applied to major sources of pollution but first would have considered how much each industry is polluting now, what they’re already doing to reduce emissions and what else they could do, all while considering economic impact. 

Once a rule is drafted it goes to the Environmental Improvement Board, composed of state Senate confirmed experts. Parties intervene in what is essentially a trial. They bring experts and written testimony. They have a chance to cross-examine, rebut, appeal and even go to court if needed.  

The board ensures there is science and evidence behind our rules; that every party is treated fairly during a highly structured process; that economic impacts are considered (a requirement); that the rules must be based on the fact record; and that the public has a chance to participate.  If any part of the process fails to follow the rules, parties can appeal or go to court. This is a profoundly transparent process. 

The details of what should and shouldn’t go in our air and water should not be worked out by politicians in a 30-day legislative session. We do need legislative guidance, though, and that is what Clear Horizons was. 

On all fronts, New Mexicans want and need science, stability, fairness and predictability. We need that for our geopolitics, our economy, and especially for our air, water and climate.  

Camilla Feibelman is the director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter.