No Snowpack, No Runoff Coming, And New Mexico Legislature Faceplants - Again - In Attempt To Limit GHG Emissions

[hatrack]

The Clear Horizons & Emissions Codification Act died on the New Mexico Senate floor when seven Democratic senators joined all of the minority Republican caucus to kill it. While several Democrats spoke in favor of the bill, also known as SB18, not one person spoke against it — a hint that the vote was decided before the Feb. 11 hearing began. When Sen. William Sharer (R-San Juan), the minority floor leader, voted, you could hear the sing-song in his “No!” After the vote tally was read — 19-23 — bill sponsor Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) quietly said, “Thank you to the body for the discussion,” though there had been no real discussion. In a later interview, Stewart said Republicans didn’t fight the bill that day because “they didn’t need to. They could just wait for the seven Democrats that voted with them.”

EDIT

The effort to reduce the climate altering emissions was often referred to as a “100% reduction by 2050,” which apparently confused some. Senate Republicans sent out a crowing press release right after the vote, with unflattering photos of the bill’s sponsors and the incorrect claim that the bill was a “‘zero emissions’ environmental mandate by the year 2050.” Actually, the bill had explicit carve-outs excluding sources emitting less than 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, like small businesses and agricultural interests. It also contained a provision proposed by oil and gas companies to allow large polluters — like oil and gas companies — to offset their emissions elsewhere in the state, rather than requiring reductions at their point of production.

EDIT

Two of the seven Democrats who voted against the bill, Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) and Sen. Benny Shendo (D-Jemez Pueblo), were the decisive votes killing a version of the Clear Horizons Act in last year’s session. None of the seven — including Sens. Roberto Gonzales, Shannon Pinto, Joseph Cervantes, Martin Hickey and Antonio Maestas — responded to requests for comment sent to their offices and to the Senate Democrats’ communications director. (Ed. - State Senator and bill sponsor Mimi) Stewart said that without someone taking the lead to reduce methane emissions, “New Mexico is in for some terrible extreme weather and some horrible, just horrible things that are going to happen to us.” She cited fires, floods and the resulting difficulty of finding affordable home insurance.

Camilla Feibelman, the director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, was one of the bill’s most vocal supporters — a yin to Currier’s yang. The day after the vote, in an interview with Capital & Main and New Mexico PBS, Feibelman echoed and expanded on Stewart’s thoughts. “There is no snow pack to speak of. This means no spring runoff, no recharge of our aquifers, curtailed irrigation. We have a new species of mosquito here in New Mexico. A member of the Senate’s husband has West Nile virus because of one of those mosquitoes,” she said. The last three years were not just the hottest on record — they were even warmer than the historic warming trend would predict. And some scientists are saying that if an El Niño sets up in the Pacific Ocean next year as expected, 2027 could be warmer still.

EDIT

https://capitalandmain.com/more-lost-horizons-how-new-mexicos-climate-plan-flamed-out-again

[Clouds Passing]

1. Thanks oil whores