Emissions bill doesn’t clear committee

Senate Democrat joins with GOP to block bill he calls toothless: ‘We’re not here to write Hallmark cards’

Sen. Joe Cervantes didn’t hold back Tuesday. After Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart presented a so-called dummy bill to the Senate Conservation Committee to codify in state statute emission reduction targets and recently promulgated methane waste rules, Cervantes spent about a half-hour ripping Senate Bill 520 apart.

“We’re here to write laws,” the prominent Las Cruces Democrat said. “We’re not here to write Hallmark cards.”

Cervantes, chairman of the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, said the proposal didn’t have any teeth — an opinion he shared with opponents in the room.

“I tell all the opponents here, ‘What are you worried about?’ ” he said. “There’s no consequence in this bill, so sleep well, ag or oil or gas because we’re giving you our hope and our dream and our T-shirt slogan and our bumper sticker, but we’re not really telling you that if you don’t do this, anything’s gonna happen to you, so sleep easy.”

The proposal ultimately stalled in committee after two consecutive tie votes, with Cervantes joining with Republicans each time to sideline the measure.

Stewart said after the meeting the bill is unlikely to cross the finish line during this year’s 60-day legislative session, which ends in less than two weeks.

“It’s late in the session,” she said. “We’re approaching the point where we’re not going to be able to get anything passed, essentially. There’s a few bills [to fight climate change] still moving. Certainly, the clean fuel standard is going to move out of the House. Hopefully, we can get it passed here in the Senate.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, Stewart, D-Albuquerque, told committee members that “groups of people” have been working with the Governor’s Office for nearly a year to try to essentially codify a 2019 executive order issued by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to address climate change.

“That process kind of stopped a few months ago when people could not agree,” she said. “What you have before you is a reduced version of what was being worked on with the governor, the environmental community, the oil and gas industry.”

The bill, Stewart said, set out to do four things, including codifying emission reduction targets outlined in the governor’s executive order.

“It sets emission targets in the Air Quality Control Act that would be at least 50% of 2005 levels by 2030, 75% by 2040 and 90% by 2050,” he said.

The bill also directed an interagency Climate Change Task Force “to establish equity and environmental justice guidelines for the review of climate change-related activities, including prioritizing disproportionately impacted communities, tribal consultation and incorporation of traditional knowledge and experience,” Stewart said.

Cervantes repeatedly questioned provisions of the bill.

“Paragraph four of this bill requires that we incorporate ‘traditional knowledge.’ What the hell is that?” he asked.

“We’ll never be able to measure that. We’ll never be able to enforce that,” Cervantes added. “It may make us feel good, but again — I’m using the analogy probably tirelessly — it’s great on a button, it’s nice on a bumper sticker.”

The proposal, he said, looked more like a memorial than a possible law.

“None of this can be enforced,” he said. “None of this.”