A new route in N.M.
Gov. Susana Martinez steers state to right

by Will Sands

The winds are shifting just south of the Colorado border. New Mexico’s new Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has come out swinging in her first few weeks in office and has promised to steer New Mexico away from the green policies of her predecessor Bill Richardson.

Late last year, on Nov. 2, Gov. Richardson helped the State of New Mexico take a pioneering step and adopt the most comprehensive greenhouse gas regulations in the nation. The new rules were set to take effect in 2012 and would have forced power plants and the oil and gas sector to radically curb their emissions. For Richardson, the adoption marked a highpoint in an eight-year career dedicated to creating a green economy in New Mexico.

However, New Mexico voters sent a very different message on the same day of the adoption and elected Susana Martinez, a staunchly pro-business Republican from Las Cruces, to the governor’s office. On Jan. 5, just days after entering office, Martinez made her first mark and blocked the publication of the greenhouse gas rules in the New Mexico Register. She then summarily dismissed all of the members of New Mexico’s Environmental Improvement Board, the body that adopted the new rules. Her letter to the board was matter-of-fact.

“Thank you for your service to the State of New Mexico by serving on the Environmental Improvement Board,” she wrote. “This letter is to inform you that I am removing you as a member of the Environmental Improvement Board. Your removal is effective immediately. Again, thank you for your service to our state.”

“New Mexico has suffered from an anti-business environment exacerbated by 4 policies which discourage economic development and result in businesses setting up shop across state lines,” she said.

Martinez, an avowed climate change skeptic, did not stop with New Mexico’s greenhouse gas mandate. A day later, she appointed one-term U.S. Senator and geologist Harrison Schmitt to head New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The 75-year-old has written that climate science is a plot “to increase government control” and has forwarded a far-fetched plan to extract helium from the moon.

After announcing the nomination, Martinez stated that Schmitt’s experience will help guide the “responsible development” of New Mexico’s natural resources. “Harnessing and developing energy sources right here in New Mexico is critical to reviving our economy and creating jobs,” she said.

Martinez is also making moves to overturn New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Pit Rule, which governs the storage and disposal of toxic oil and gas drilling wastes, and doubtless has her eye on Northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin. The region’s two coal-fired power plants and more than 10,000 oil and gas wells should figure prominently in Martinez’ plans for the Land of Enchantment.

“There’s a lot riding on what happens in Northwest New Mexico, and we’re concerned that Gov. Martinez is working to move us backwards,” said Mike Eisenfeld, San Juan Citizens Alliance’s New Mexico coordinator. “Already she’s told that solar and wind industries that New Mexico will not be hospitable to renewable energy development. We fully expect her to support keeping the coal-fired status quo in the Four Corners.”

One group is already taking the fight for the Four Corners environment into the courtroom. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center filed suit last week in response to the new governor’s dissolution of the greenhouse gas regulations. The lawsuit was filed in New Mexico Supreme Court and alleged that Martinez failed to comply with the law and publish the regulation in the State Register.

“The governor and her staff cannot disregard the law,” said Bruce Frederick, NMELC Staff Attorney. “When the board adopts a rule and files it with the state records center, the law requires the rule to be published in the state register. That’s how regulations become enforceable law. The governor cannot circumvent the law or expand her powers by executive order.”

Martinez countered that she believed the greenhouse regulations were adopted illegally and that she was only putting a hold on a “proposed and pending” rule. Frederick disagreed. “The greenhouse cap rule is not a proposed or pending rule,” he said. “It is a final rule.”

Frederick concluded that the governor does not have the authority to adopt, repeal or amend rules, and her move in early January could be unconstitutional. “There is an established public process when proposing a new regulation or when removing an old regulation, that allows for fair and careful scrutiny of data and representation of many points of view,” he said. “The governor is attempting to eliminate this open and public process.”

Whatever the outcome of the greenhouse gas case, conservation groups are digging in for a drawn-out battle with Martinez. The timing is particularly ominous for the Four Corners, where notorious polluters the San Juan Generating Station and the Four Corners Power Plant are finally being held to the Clean Air Act after decades of excesses.

“We fully expect her to come out swinging on behalf of coal-fired power,” Eisenfeld concluded. “And while we’ll give her opportunities to govern, we can’t sit back idly and watch her dismantle all of the work we’ve done.” •