Brookings report: New Mexico economy is “decoupling” carbon emissions from economic growth

The center-left Brookings Institute (a Washington-based think tank) has a new report available which details on a state-by-state basis how fast economic growth has grown relative to carbon emissions.

The full array of state-by-state charts is available at the link above while New Mexico’s chart is below. The gist of the chart is that New Mexico’s REAL GDP grew from the baseline of 100 in the year 2000 to 123.3 (23.3%) while carbon emitted due to the State’s economic activity fell from a baseline of 100 to 86.8 (a drop of 13.2%).

In other words, from a carbon “efficiency” standpoint, over the past 16 years, New Mexicans are engaging in more economic activity while carbon emissions are declining. We rank 18th-best in this according to Brookings. This decoupling SHOULD be good news for those who actually want to see wealth/prosperity AND who are concerned about the environmental impact of CO2 emissions.