State-level resistance gearing up

Energy, environmental rule rollbacks face fights

President Donald Trump and the new Republican Congress have promised a sea change in the nation’s energy and environmental policies, but federal reforms may face a wave of statelevel resistance, plus rough tides in the energy markets.

The energy industry expects a significant boost as the Trump administration backs away from rules and regulations on climate change. That includes an end to the Obama-era clean-power plan to lower carbon emissions from coal and other fossil fuels; faster approval for oil and gas leasing, drilling and infrastructure; and a broad rollback of federal regulations and red tape.

“Trump’s presidency marks an historic reversal from the previous focus on climate change and global warming,” said Daniel Fine, associate director of the Center for Energy Policy at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. “It represents a major defeat for climate change energy policies in the U.S.”

But federal efforts will meet stiff resistance nationally from opposition groups, plus ramped-up action at the state level to defend environmental policies.

Most states, including New Mexico, already have a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in place to promote renewable energy and many are strengthening them. California, New York and Oregon recently increased their RPS mandates to require that 50 percent of all electricity comes from renewable sources over the next 10 to 20 years. It’s 75 percent now in Vermont and 100 percent in Hawaii by 2045.

New Mexico’s RPS requires 20 percent of local electricity to come from renewables by 2020. Two Democratic legislators, Sen. Mimi Stewart of Albuquerque and Rep. Nathan Small of Las Cruces, introduced a bill in this year’s session to increase that to 50