Statement on PNM’s San Juan Generating Station summer plans
Climate change – and the more frequent and intense heat waves it brings – is putting greater strain on our electric grid. PNM faces an added challenge during 2022’s peak-demand summer season because the pandemic and subsequent supply-chain issues have slowed construction of resources to replace the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, which is set to retire in June. Keeping San Juan running an extra three months may be necessary to keep PNM’s reserve margin high enough until replacement resources start coming online in September.  ...
No on SB194: Gas-fueled hydrogen plants are NOT renewable energy

SB194 will be heard in Senate Conservation Committee at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8.

If your Senator is on the committee, write your senator a personal note in opposition. If not, please write Sens. Liz Stefanics, Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez, Bill Soules, Carrie Hamblen, Harold Pope and Joseph Cervantes. Please attend the hearing Tuesday, either in person or remotely (here’s the Zoom link).

SB194 changes the definition of “renewable energy” in the Renewable Energy Act to include hydrogen-based electric power if carbon dioxide emitted from production is permanently sequestered, the gas used to produce the hydrogen is certified as “responsibly sourced gas,” and the project produces no more than 375 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. There is nothing renewable ...

New Mexico's HB4 "Hydrogen Hub Act" presents climate threat

Hydrogen production, especially hydrogen derived from methane, presents many different types of pollution, safety and local health threats along the production and distribution chain, including: 

  • Significant, climate-damaging methane emissions from extraction and transportation; 
  • CO2 pollution from the process to produce hydrogen and from the gas burned to power that process; 
  • NOx pollution from combusting hydrogen (up to 6x burning methane); 
  • Pipelines that are not suited to carry hydrogen (potentially causing leaks and safety risks); 
  • End-use explosion and health risks in homes and buildings.
HB4 does not regulate, resolve or reduce any of those dangers. Instead it offers taxpayer money to subsidize fossil fuels and projects that could become stranded assets within a decade.
Transformational climate legislation in New Mexico

HB6: The Clean Future Act 

Bill Sponsors: Rep. Nathan Small, Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill; On the Governor’s Call 

As New Mexicans experience prolonged drought, devastating forest fires, unprecedented heat waves, and pollution from industries right here at home, we must prioritize just climate solutions that protect our people and preserve our air, water, and climate. 

In addition to protecting our health and tackling the climate impacts we’re already seeing across the state, the clean-energy transition is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to diversify our economy, raise new revenue, and create good jobs in growing industries along the way. For our climate, our health, and our economy it’s time to open new doors to a clean future for every New Mexico community. 

The ...

NM Supreme Court Rules ETA Constitutional
The New Mexico Supreme Court today rejected New Energy Economy’s challenges to the constitutionality of the Energy Transition Act (ETA) and upheld the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) decision relating to the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station. These rulings end months of delays in sending transition funds to communities and issuing bonds that will reduce customer costs ...
Photo of gas flare by Varodrig

Fossil-fueled hydrogen projects take us backward in our race to avoid climate catastrophe. 

    • Hydrogen production is already responsible for 3-4% of the world’s carbon emissionsequivalent to that of the UK and Indonesia combined. New Mexico’s discussion draft of Hydrogen Hub legislation includes taxpayer-funded incentives for this type of hydrogen production.
    • Pouring taxpayer dollars into proposed fossil-fueled hydrogen projects would create new reliance on fracked gas that could lock in devastating climate consequences and health damages for frontline communities. Hydrogen is carbon-free (but not pollution-free) when combusted, but hydrogen is incredibly energy-intensive to produce, and the production process for gas-derived hydrogen generates significant methane, carbon, nitrogen oxide and other pollution. Most of the ...
Analysis of EPA’s New Proposed Methane Safeguards
On November 2, policy experts, frontline leaders, and corporate accountability advocates joined a press briefing to respond to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed new Clean Air Act safeguards to reduce methane and other harmful pollutants from new and existing sources in the oil and natural gas industry which were announced earlier today ...
EPA proposes major curbs on oil & gas methane but must strengthen them
On November 2, the Environmental Protection Agency released critical new draft rules to reduce methane emissions and other pollution from the oil and gas industry. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Methane is also emitted alongside other harmful pollution that puts communities at risk of serious negative health effects ...