Governor Bill Richardson Signs Historic Climate Change Executive Order

Governor Bill Richardson Signs Historic Climate Change Executive Order

(Santa Fe, NM) Governor Bill Richardson signed an executive order today that spells out emission reduction strategies to address climate change in New Mexico.

The Governor directed state agencies to follow many of the bold recommendations of the Climate Change Advisory Group, which produced a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 267 million metric tons and create a projected $2 billion net economic savings for New Mexico's economy.

"Climate change is the major environmental issue of our time," Governor Bill Richardson said. "Nothing poses a bigger threat to our water, our livelihood and our quality of life than a warming climate. Today I am taking the first step toward implementing as many of these recommendations as are possible, feasible and effective."

The Governor's executive order creates a state government implementation team tasked with ensuring policies from the order are carried out. Those policies include:

• Creating a market-based greenhouse gas emissions registry and reduction program
• Advancing carbon capture and sequestration technology'
• Promoting the use of manure from the dairy industry in power generation
• Developing an education and outreach program on green buildings for those private sector builders
• Creating new procurement rules that ensure state government offices have energy efficient appliances
• Mandating that state vehicles use mainly clean, renewable fuels
• Proposes a one-time tax credit of up to 40 percent for the purchase, construction or retrofitting of alternative fuel filling stations.

"The climate change advisory group's process for developing strategies that are feasible for such diverse organizations as industry, environmental groups, government, academia and the national laboratories makes New Mexico's process on combating global warming unique," said New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry. "The reason our state is accomplishing so much is that we know how to cooperate. We can now move forward rapidly with these recommendations."

The government implementation team, which will make recommendations to the state's Clean Energy Development Council, includes representatives from the state agencies of the Environment Department, Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department, the New Mexico Department of Transportation, Regulations and Licensing Department, Department of Finance and Administration, Department of Taxation and Revenue, the General Services Department, Department of Agriculture, Office of the State Engineer and Office of the Governor. The team will also consult with representatives from the Public Regulation Commission.

Governor Richardson previously endorsed seeking regulations to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions of new cars and trucks sold in New Mexico and more than quadrupling New Mexico's renewable energy use by mandating that 15 percent of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2015 and working with utilities to achieve a 25 percent of that electricity by 2020. This year, New Mexico became the first state to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, a greenhouse gas emission reduction and trading program.

In spring 2005, Governor Richardson issued an executive order establishing greenhouse gas emission reduction goals for New Mexico and called for the creation of the advisory group to meet those goals. The state's greenhouse gas reduction goals were targeted to meet year 2000 levels by 2012, 10 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 and 75 percent below 2000 levels by 2050. New Mexico, along with Arizona and California, is among a growing number of states to create climate change advisory groups.

New Mexico's advisory group consisted of about 40 representatives from tribes, industry, agriculture, universities and our national labs and environmental nonprofit groups. The Governor's Climate Change Action Council, which is composed of cabinet secretaries, reviewed the group's recommendations and offered its recommendation to the governor.

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http://www.governor.state.nm.us/press/2006/press-dec06.php