New Mexico deserves an honest conversation about the Clear Horizons Act (S.B. 18). Not slogans. Not carefully worded press releases. And not policies that sound good until you look at who ultimately pays the price.
The Clear Horizons Act is designed to fundamentally reshape New Mexico’s economy by targeting and dismantling traditional energy production, particularly oil and gas, through aggressive emissions mandates, expanded regulatory authority, and long term restrictions intended to force a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. Its stated goal is emissions reduction. Its real world impact, however, is far broader and far more damaging.
This legislation centralizes power, expands bureaucracy, and places New Mexico’s rural economies, state trust lands, and public school funding at serious risk.
It is important to be clear about what this bill is attempting to do.
The Clear Horizons Act seeks to impose statewide emissions caps across multiple sectors, expand regulatory authority over energy production, transportation, and industry, accelerate the phase down of oil and gas development regardless of economic or revenue impacts, and shift New Mexico toward a compliance driven climate model borrowed from states with vastly different economies and land ownership structures.
What it does not do is provide a realistic plan to replace the revenue that currently funds public schools, universities, and essential services across New Mexico.
The numbers tell the story, and they cannot be ignored.
In the most recent fiscal year, oil and gas generated approximately $2.6 billion for the State of New Mexico through royalties, severance taxes, production taxes, and lease payments. That revenue supports public education, health care, infrastructure, and state and local government services statewide. On state trust land alone, oil and gas production pays 20 to 25 percent in royalties, directly benefiting schools and other trust beneficiaries.
By contrast, clean energy projects generated roughly $8 million in state revenue during the same period. While wind and solar projects bring investment and construction jobs, their ongoing contribution to state revenue is comparatively minimal. Most clean energy projects on state trust land pay just 3 to 6 percent in royalties.
That is not a matter of opinion. It is a difference of $2.6 billion versus $8 million.
Equally important is what happens after the energy is produced.
Oil and gas operators are required to contribute to a reclamation fund and post bonds to ensure sites are properly cleaned up when production ends. That reclamation fund is not a tax on the people of New Mexico. It is paid for entirely by the oil and gas industry itself through fees assessed on production. When wells reach the end of their life, those funds exist to protect landowners, taxpayers, and the state trust from cleanup costs.
Clean energy does not operate under the same standard.
There is no equivalent statewide reclamation fund for wind turbines or large scale solar facilities. There is no guaranteed funding mechanism to restore land when projects reach the end of their lifespan or when companies sell assets, dissolve, or walk away.
So the question New Mexicans deserve answered is straightforward. Who pays when wind turbines rust, solar arrays are abandoned, or a clean energy company goes belly up?
If the answer is the taxpayer or the trust, then New Mexico has failed in its responsibility as a steward of public land.
I oppose the Clear Horizons Act because it punishes an industry that pays its fair share and funds the state, while giving a pass to alternatives that do not. It treats oil and gas, an industry that brings in $2.6 billion, pays higher royalties, and funds reclamation, as something to be dismantled, while replacing it with revenue streams totaling $8 million and carrying unresolved long term liabilities.
That is not environmental leadership. It is selective accountability.
New Mexico is a rural, land based state. We manage millions of acres of working lands held in trust for specific beneficiaries. Any climate policy that weakens the revenue streams funding education, land stewardship, and rural communities without a proven replacement is fundamentally flawed.
I am not opposed to renewable energy. I am opposed to unequal rules, unequal responsibility, and unrealistic math.
If clean energy is going to be part of New Mexico’s future, then it must pay royalty rates comparable to other energy producers, contribute to a dedicated reclamation fund paid by the industry rather than taxpayers, and be held to the same long term accountability standards as oil and gas.
Anything less is not a transition. It is a gamble with New Mexico’s land, schools, and future.
Clear horizons require clear thinking. This bill falls short on both.
Two-term Chaves County Commissioner is running for State Land Commissioner.
The Democrat party is rallying around this bill to further regulate oil and gas production. they are sending out newsletters to voters with information on who to contact telling those democrat reps YES WE WANT MORE REGULATION. what happens when the bill passes and the oil revenue falls ? this revenue is all NM has going for it. MLGS multi billion dollar budget cant work without all that money. The handouts cant continue without all that money. the people writing, pushing, and voting FOR these regulations are NOT QUALIFIED to make these decisions and have no idea what they are doing other than CLIMATE. they are as inept as children in an operating room. Go ahead NM, regulate yourself right out of existence. the stupidity in this state is truly world class. If you can afford to do it, move out of NM, it circles the drain and that never changes.
Well, I’M opposed to “renewable energy” because it doesn’t exist, at least not yet. The same people who wail, gnash their teeth & rend garments over the “planet” or some obscure “endangered” grouse or lizard have no problem w/ wind & solar “farms” that are not only unsightly but DEEPLY damaging to hundreds if not thousands of acres of land, harming or decimating native plants, animals, insects, ancient trails & even the people living near them. Hypocracy at its zenith.
Good luck, Mike. We’ll be voting for you!
It is important for us to realize that behind many of these crazy bills are institutions which grease the palms of those who vote the way they are instructed. This bill makes no sense whatsoever and makes it appear to the sane that the elites want to empty New Mexico of its population. Reckon those at Devos are fueling this by greasing palms?
Perhaps the trial lawyers in the state legislature will have a change of heart when they realize that they have not only run Doctors and other health care professionals out of our state, but are now going to run the oil and gas industry out of our state. They will be losing two of their biggest income streams they have (parasites that they are). This state needs healthcare professionals and the oil and gas industry – we do not need the lawyers.
Yep, due to Santa Fe Dem. Leadership, we already pay more per gallon of gas than our neighbors Aka Texas. Price of propane to heat home goes up every year. No help from Santa Fe!!! As a general rule everything is cheaper to the East of me. Heath care is also cheaper in Texas. Maybe ought to sell and move to Texas???
Great Quote:
Every left-wing, utopian, nonsensical reference to “saving the planet” is based on a heap of lies. Propaganda and sloganeering works, and not because people want to do good, but because the followers of pseudoscience want to harm others who are not aligned with their political endgame of punishing humanity for supposed sins against their mythical brass gods rooted in environmental causes.
TAZ the flaw in your argument is that the trial lawyers at the clown house WILL LEARN from their mistakes. When has that ever happened before ? They follow the money they can pocket and nothing else. If the oil and gas industry were to say, we have had enough, we will just drill in texas the democrats will tell us, LOOK, we were right !! we should have put every nickel into windmills and solar because we have no gas !! they never take accountability, only shift blame. Your observation works for logical people, so that excludes dems in the clown house . just sayin.
As California fails due to idiotic legislation so will NM as we follow the failing ideas in California. We have limited industry and as NM moves further left than most we become very unattractive to companies that want to make money. Again, in California companies are moving east of the border. Texas looks a lot better than NM for business. If only we the people of NM could realize what our politicians are doing to NM, to us, to our children, our grandchildren. Until we wake up as voters NM will continue to screw it’s own people.