MLG floats gas tax on the poor, forcing citizens to buy ‘clean’ fuel cars during speech

While delivering the opening “keynote” address at the “virtual” 2021 State Environmental Protection meeting of the Environmental Council of States (ECOS), Lujan Grisham touted more of the same talking points she has been spewing regarding the “climate” and how she would like other states to adopt a version of New Mexico’s extreme “Green New Deal.” 

“New Mexico is serving as a shining example to other states and countries,” She said. “If other states and countries are looking for a climate action model to follow, look to New Mexico.”

According to a press release from the Governor’s Environment Department, “In her remarks, Gov. Lujan Grisham highlighted the innovative ways New Mexico is addressing climate change, including reducing emissions from the utility sector and the oil and gas industry, adopting clean car standards, prioritizing clean fuel standard legislation, investing in green energy job training, and making New Mexico the nation’s largest hydrogen hub. Through a whole-of-government approach, New Mexico is decarbonizing and diversifying its economy.” 

It is important to note that she mentioned “adopting clean fuel standards.” Not only is this concerning regarding a standard on industries, such as the transportation industry, but it is concerning regarding citizens if she chooses to try to impose a clean car standard on the average citizen.

By implementing this on industries, it would result in an at least 20+ cent per gallon gas tax on the poor, a proposal that failed during the 2021 Legislative Session, with even Democrat senators being hesitant to support it.

But a “clean car standard” for everyday citizens would mean forcing New Mexico’s citizens — a state with some of the poorest people in the nation — to buy expensive “fuel-efficient,” “green,” “hybrid,” or fully electric vehicles — crippling New Mexicans’ bank accounts and forcing thousands to either break the law, walk, or not travel at all. It would plunge countless people into financial ruin, resulting in an economic catastrophe for New Mexico. 

As for her Green New Deal in the form of the “Energy Transition Act,” it has forced New Mexico’s to be higher than the national average from March 2020 to March 2021, while New Mexicans were asked to cut back on electricity use because solar panel and clouds. 

XCEL Energy, one of the three largest electric utilities in the state, is already asking to raise rates on their customers because of the Energy Transition Act, passing off large costs back to the consumers. 

In northeast New Mexico, the Energy Transition Act has forced the closure of the San Juan Generating Station by PNM, leaving countless New Mexicans without jobs and only around 80 employees able to retire. “For the rest of the employees, though, they’re going to have to go find some other form of employment,” said plant manager Omni Warner. 

New Mexico is bleeding cash by the day as the Governor’s assault on the energy industry worsens. New Mexicans are being laid off with no fallback other than the state’s flailing unemployment system run by Lujan Grisham’s cabinet appointees. 

Even far-left enviro-Marxist groups have begged the Legislature to make changes to the Energy Transition Act before it completely wrecks the state.

With these failed policies, the Environment Department still claims, “the State of New Mexico is lighting the way to a brighter future for all.” But others disagree.

Larry Behrens, Western States Director for the pro-energy group Power the Future wrote in response to her speech, “Governor Lujan Grisham’s remarks are a shining example of what happens when you transition away from the truth. The Governor’s green agenda is causing eclectic rates to go up faster than the national average at a time when New Mexico’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the country. In just the last year, every utility in the state failed to meet the standard for her energy transition, and New Mexicans were asked to use less electricity as triple-digit heat hit parts of the state. New Mexico’s working families are being forced to pay for the Governor’s failed green agenda and no state should follow such an example.”