Governor Lujan Grisham Can’t Figure Out What Energy Has Done for New Mexico

December 12, 2019

You would think self-awareness would be a requirement to be Governor of an energy-rich state: you would be wrong.

In comments made to pro-renewable publication while receiving an eco-left award, New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham just couldn’t figure out what fossil fuels have done for her state in the “big picture.”

Lujan Grisham acknowledges that fossil fuels have produced a lot of benefits to her state in the form of taxing energy producers to extract the state’s oil, gas and coal resources.

But, “Big picture: Where has it gotten us?” she asked. “New Mexico remains a high poverty state with a slew of seemingly intractable problems. So maybe it’s time we try something new.”

It’s next-to-impossible to understand how a Governor who spends state dollars at a record pace can’t figure out how the energy industry helps her state.

In a new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute (GEI), researchers noted the positive benefits the oil boom in the Permian Basin has brought to New Mexico, “the state’s residents are benefiting from thousands of newly created jobs and increased incomes. … Billion-dollar budget surpluses from taxes and royalties paid by the oil and natural gas industry are being invested in schools and roads while also rebuilding state budget reserves.”

The Governor is quick to tout her “moonshot” spending on education and a proposal to provide free college. Neither of those would be possible without New Mexico’s energy industry.

As the Governor looks to buy a new, fossil-fuel-powered airplane, we hope she will take a moment to talk to our energy workers. No doubt they can educate her on the big picture.