Of Rising Temps, Food Prices and Riots
Score One for Big Business in New Mexico
On a final and more disturbing note, the new governor of New Mexico has fired the state’s entire environmental board and scrapped a state regulation targeted to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The move was not unexpected. Susana Martinez, New Mexico’s new Republican governor, had campaigned against the state regulations as harmful to big business, and she knows those businesses all too well. Martinez took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from big oil and gas companies in winning November’s election.
Last year, New Mexico’s Environmental Improvement Board approved a measure designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions by 3 percent annually from the state’s largest polluters. In dismissing the board last week, Martinez said it was “anti-business.”
The measure was part of the Western Climate Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program designed and led by California. It was originally designed to include seven states and four provinces in Canada as a deterrent against businesses moving to other states to avoid emission regulations.
Climate change has already had a profound impact on Western states – New Mexico included – as droughts have gotten longer and snowpacks have melted faster. With no national legislation in place, states like California and New Mexico have been left to address global warming on a state and regional level.
Now the entire Western Climate Initiative is in jeopardy. Martinez is unlikely to soften her stance. She has previously said she does not believe in the science that has linked climate change to human activity.