Today, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order to bring the state into the 21st century in the fight against climate change and our transition to clean energy. The order seeks transformative action to boost clean energy, reduce climate pollution, and harden New Mexico’s infrastructure against climate impacts.
“Today, Gov. Lujan Grisham showed true leadership on climate change, delivering on the promise that swept her into office and showing the country and the world what states can do in our shared fight against climate change,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center. “We look forward to working with the governor to follow through with the ambitious actions set in motion by her executive order.”
The order provides that New Mexico will support the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, committing to a statewide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 45 percent by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels. Key to the order is a multi-sector approach that counters eight years of the Martinez administration’s active hostility toward reducing the state’s significant contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and two years of the Trump administration’s evisceration of federal climate action.
“New Mexico’s vast fossil fuel reserves provide us with the opportunity to play an outsized role in fighting climate change by cutting potent methane pollution and waste, and by ensuring the federal government, in its rush to exploit fossil fuels, doesn’t harm New Mexico’s communities,” said Schlenker-Goodrich. “The order seizes that opportunity while laying out a vision for a just and equitable transition to clean energy, and actions to account for the impacts of climate change to our communities.”
Contacts:
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, 575-770-1295, gro.w1732297649alnre1732297649tsew@1732297649gskir1732297649e1732297649