NMED seeks approval to enact clean fuels rule by end of the year
Traffic along Tramway road captured May 21, 2025. New Mexico put forward draft rules for its clean fuels program, and officials hope hearings will begin later this year. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
As the Trump administration attacks states' efforts to combat climate change, New Mexico pushes ahead with its plans to create a market place for clean fuels.
Last week, the New Mexico Environment Department proposed the Clean Transportation Fuel Program to the state's Environmental Improvement Board, which, if approved, would be the fourth one in the country.
A public comment period on the 112-page draft rule is expected to start in mid-June, according to an NMED news release, with a request to schedule the required hearings this fall.
The draft rule follows the New Mexico Legislature's 2024 passage of House Bill 41, which mandated the environment department create a market to incentivize less vehicular pollution and the state reduce emissions by 20% by 2030 and 30% by 2040. The law sets a deadline of July 1, 2026 for the adoption of rules creating the marketplace.
Officials and proponents say the program is meant to reduce pollution over time by allowing cleaner fuel companies — using electricity or diesel made from refined plants like corn or soybeans — to sell credits to sellers of more polluting fuels. In its proposed rule, NMED created an objective measure, called the clean fuel standard, to determine the total greenhouse emissions of a fuel.
The standard measures the 'well-to-wheel' intensity, said Michelle Miano, who leads NMED's Environmental Protection Division.
'It includes the drilling of the well, taking up petroleum or fossil products from the well, what it takes to refine, take to market and go to sale,' she said. 'We are calculating the carbon intensity of that entire lifecycle and we're doing that for all the different kinds of fuels.'
Miano said the marketplace meets the goals of diversifying the economy; working to curb pollution; and incentivizing fuel producers to reduce their carbon footprints.
New Mexico would be the fourth state to adopt this kind of program, behind California, Washington and Oregon. Miano said the program will be entirely state-run, and doesn't require federal input.
'This is a state program and state law, so no matter what happens at the federal level, this program will remain in place so that the economic benefits are received by New Mexico, regardless of federal movements,' Miano said.
Transportation ranks as New Mexico's second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions behind oil and gas production, according to Travis Madsen, the transportation program director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, a nonprofit that advocates for electrification across the intermountain West.
'Most of that is burning petroleum in cars and trucks,' he told Source NM. 'And in order to reduce those emissions, we need to move our transportation and energy supplies towards less emitting, or zero-emitting energy sources — that's what the clean fuel standard aims to do.'
Madsen said the efforts to use renewables on the electrical grid and the further adoption of electric cars at home could translate to cost-savings.
'Using electricity instead of gasoline can provide some major savings on fuel costs for residents or businesses, and I'm expecting that the net effect of this policy is going to be that New Mexicans save money,' he said.
Madsen referenced recent proposals from House Republicans to gut clean energy tax credits and pollution rules as a driving reason for New Mexico to create the program.
'I think the federal government is definitely not moving toward emission reductions and is probably moving away. That would push things in the wrong direction and make it harder for New Mexico to achieve those pollution reduction goals that it set out,' he said. 'I think it's even more important now that New Mexico pursues actions that it can take on its own without the help of the federal government — the clean fuel standard is a prime example of that.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Back to the days of land grabs': NM state lawmakers on alert against sale of public lands
Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) attended a watch event for a court hearing in the Yazzie/Martinez education equity case on April 29, 2025. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Even though the Republican tax and spend bill that cleared the United States House of Representatives last month no longer authorizes the sale of thousands acres of public land, state lawmakers in New Mexico say they will continue to monitor how the federal government's actions toward public lands could impact Native nations. As the interim legislative Indian Affairs Committee on Monday planned its work for the rest of 2025 at its first meeting since this year's legislative session, two members said the U.S. government's plan to sell public lands could threaten tribal sovereignty and economic development in New Mexico, which is home to 23 Indigenous nations. Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, an enrolled member of the Piro Manso Tiwa Tribe and an Albuquerque Democrat, said she anticipates the federal government's sales of public lands may affect tribal sovereignty, and she wants to know what legal mechanisms are available to the state government to 'push back against those land grabs.' 'I envision us going back to the days of land grabs,' Roybal Caballero said. U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), who co-founded the Bipartisan Public Lands Caucus earlier this year, last month applauded the removal of a provision in the budget bill that would have authorized the sale of thousands acres of public land in Utah and Nevada. At the time, Mark Allison, executive director of conservation advocacy group New Mexico Wild, said this is the first of many fights in coming days to stave off efforts to privatize public lands. 'The same forces that tried to sneak this land grab through would love nothing more than to come after New Mexico's public lands next time,' he said. NM delegation: Three national monuments could be reduced, eliminated Rep. Charlotte Little, an Albuquerque Democrat from San Felipe Pueblo, said on Monday she wants the committee to receive a report on the impact of the federal government's proposed actions toward the Chaco Canyon and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks national monuments, and how those actions could also affect economic development in the surrounding areas. New Mexico's federal delegation, led by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in April asked the federal government to leave intact Tent Rocks along with Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and Rio Grande del Norte, which they said were 'under consideration for reduction or elimination.' Roybal Caballero also said she wants the committee to discuss issues related to sustainable management of tribal lands including water rights, resource extraction and environmental protection. By the end of the year, the committee is expected to endorse legislation for the 2026 legislative session. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
As temperatures rise, New Mexico heat-rule champions push back against delay
Conservation Voters New Mexico Climate and Energy Advocate Justin Garoutte urged the New Mexico Environment Department to 'hold strong' on worker protections against heat, both indoors and outside, as the the department annouced a delay and revision of its proposed heat rule later this year. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Environmental and labor advocates expressed concerns during a news conference Monday about the New Mexico environment department's decision to extend the timeline for a proposed rule to protect workers from heat-related illness and injury. The delay comes as forecasts predict another warmer-than-average summer. NMED cited rising temperatures and increased heat-related injuries and deaths when it announced the proposed rule earlier this year. Under the original timeline, the rule could have taken effect as early as July. Its provisions include: required rest periods during hot temperatures; access to adequate shade, air-conditioning and water; and employer tracking of heat-related injuries. Amid rising temperatures, NM officials propose workplace protections NMED's revised schedule pushes hearings into the fall and 'leaves another summer where our workers are vulnerable to extreme heat in New Mexico,' Conservation Voters New Mexico Climate and Energy Advocate Justin Garoutte said. A Friday state news release said the delay 'will allow for continued outreach and stakeholder engagement throughout the summer and fall, ensuring broader participation and input in the rulemaking process.' More than 600 public comments have already been submitted on the proposed rule, according to Source NM's review. These include opposition from industry groups representing livestock, landscapers, oil and gas, restaurants, county governments and utilities. The New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, for instance, asked for clarifications on how the rule would be applied across several industries and wrote: 'We urge regulators to reject this rule as there is not sufficient data to justify any of these rules. Good employers protect their employees, but mandating all industries to follow one blanket rule will not work.' Eleven New Mexico Democratic senators, however, issued a letter supporting the new standards and noted that 'public comment opposed to the rule include a great deal of unscientific claims, compounded with echoes of the federal administration's ideological bent to oppose all government action.' During Monday's news conference, Garoutte said advocates for the rule are 'committed to getting through a rule that's as strong as possible' and 'we are here today to push back on industry groups who are claiming it's too hard, too fast and too burdensome.' In the meantime, 'we hope that our employers will use this time to put in place the commonsense protections detailed so well in the proposed rule,' he said. 'Every day that passes without this rule is another day that people across our state are exposed to dangerous and sometimes deadly working conditions.' Six other states — Maryland, California, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington — have adopted statewide regulations to reduce heat stress in the workplace. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Lawmaker asks U.S. attorney to intervene in New Mexico common lands case
Rep. Miguel Garcia (D-Albuquerque) wants U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison to attend an interim legislative Land Grant Committee meeting this year. Garcia is showing speaking during the committee's first meeting since the most recent legislative session on May 30, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) A state lawmaker is asking the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico to reopen a case that allowed the American government to take millions of acres of commonly owned land promised to New Mexicans in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Rep. Miguel Garcia (D-Albuquerque) on May 28 sent a letter to U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison asking him to reopen a 128-year-old court case called United States v. Sandoval. Garcia is asking Ellison to attend one of this year's interim legislative Land Grant Committee hearings, at which land grant attorney Narciso Garcia will present the legal arguments and questions surrounding the case to either Ellison or his designee, and the committee will ask him to intervene. Last Friday, at the committee's first meeting since this year's legislative session, Garcia said he took it upon himself to make the request, and that Ellison's office is deliberating how to respond to it. Ellison's office declined to comment. The case deals with commonly owned land — locally managed lands meant to sustain communities — in seven areas in New Mexico granted by the Spanish Empire and later recognized by Mexican law. The justices ruled that the common lands were actually owned by the Spanish Empire, and therefore became the U.S. government's property as a result of the the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War. During this period, land speculators, including U.S. government officials, took advantage of adverse U.S. Supreme Court decisions to defraud communities of their common lands, Arturo Archuleta, director of the New Mexico Land Grant Council and the University of New Mexico Land Grant-Merced Institute, told the committee. The Sandoval decision resulted in the seven land grants shrinking from an average of 450,000 acres to 1,500 acres, Garcia wrote. He wrote that the ruling was a travesty of justice, and told the committee that it resulted in the depopulation of some land grant communities who could no longer herd as many cattle and sheep or produce as many forestry products. 'This was devastating for these communities because this is what brought on poverty in our state,' Garcia told the committee. 'This is a good example of how our land grant communities were turned from a vibrant, self-sustaining community to an impoverished community.' Garcia attached to the letter a 2018 working paper written by John Mitchell, who argues that after Mexico ceded the Territory of New Mexico to the U.S., Congress failed to incorporate it and allowed a temporary government to grant common lands to the inhabitants, which took away jurisdiction from the U.S. Supreme Court concerning land titles in the territory. 'Ultimately, the decision still belongs to the New Mexico Supreme Court who could hold that the de facto government did in fact grant common lands under existing law,' Mitchell wrote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
