A fun way to “get your name in the paper” at Rio Grande Foundation involves being the subject of an “off the wall” attack from some left-wing group or another. Take today’s Albuquerque Journal which included this from Michael Jensen of Conservation Voters New Mexico. His piece is a (sort of) response to the following (which also appeared in the Journal) in which RGF pushed back against the “Energy Transition Act.” That legislation was passed in 2019 and exclusively deals with forcing New Mexico utilities to transition to wind and solar in coming years, arguing (as PNM has) that the utility is going to struggle to keep the lights on as utilities are forced to abandon reliable fossil fuels.
There are too many silly points made in Jensen’s column to fully address them in a coherent way, but he spends considerable time arguing about oil and gas. Oil and gas are only tangentially related to New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act. In fact, the law forces NM utilities to abandon fossil fuels (mostly coal and natural gas) and even nuclear from electricity generation. The ETA DOES NOT deal with motor vehicles or other fossil fuels.
As the graph below clearly. illustrates, a vast majority of the electricity generated in New Mexico comes from coal and natural gas. smaller (albeit growing) amounts are derived from wind and solar, but coal and natural gas are being targeted for total elimination.
Winging it is irresponsible. Looking at what happened last winter in Texas makes me very reluctant to give up all coal and natural gas. Setting an arbitrary deadline was foolish but 100% in line with the worst governor in the country.
Well yeah, the Conservation Voters of NM get their money from people like Tom Steyer who make their money from the solar industry. It is all about the money and getting it for themselves while taking it away from their opponents, plus harming the capitalist system- The Great Reset and all.