By KEN HUGHES
Political Chair
Northern New Mexico Sierra Club

I want to respond to the voter who wondered how much Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has done on climate change.

As Northern New Mexico Sierra Club political chair and a member of the political team who enthusiastically and unanimously endorsed her, I can tell you: quite a lot (“Lujan Grisham, Ronchetti focus on persuasion, turnout in homestretch”, Oct. 2, link).

Here are a few of the governor’s accomplishments:

• She championed our nation-leading Energy Transition Act, whose major impacts have already included: requiring utilities to provide 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent carbon-free by 2045; enabling $40 million in transition funding for coal workers at San Juan Generating Station and mine as well as for the impacted Four Corners community; an average monthly bill reduction of $8.19 for PNM customers; and a 100 percent solar and storage replacement for the coal plant and over $1 billion investment in the same school district as well as in McKinley and Rio Arriba counties.
• Denial of rate recovery for a natural gas proposal that would have increased pollution for the border community of Chaparral.
• New Mexico is the first state to submit a plan for federal funding of hundreds of electric-vehicle chargers along New Mexico’s highways and rural areas.
• The governor signed an extension of the residential solar tax credits as well as community solar, making home solar more accessible and affordable for every New Mexican.
• Her Environmental Improvement Board passed clean cars standards that will finally make sure automakers provide enough cars to meet the demand for electric vehicles in New Mexico.
• She signed legislation for $12 million worth of energy-efficiency updates in lower-income homes.
• The governor also supported and signed legislation that will soon result in significant rebates for home electric vehicle chargers and electrical upgrades through your utility, as well as installation of public EV chargers.

While there is much left to do, New Mexicans are already breathing cleaner air because of Gov. Lujan Grisham, and she has made powerful progress toward both local air quality and protecting New Mexico’s children from the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

I will proudly vote for her and other champions of climate and democracy like Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse. I urge every voter who is concerned about the climate emergency to do the same. Our future truly depends on it.