Global Warming Reports
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Executive Summary
As the new home of NMPIRG's environmental work,
Environment New Mexico can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.
New Mexico could make major strides
toward reducing its emissions of global
warming pollution over the next
several decades—while leading the way toward
a clean energy future—by adopting a
series of policy strategies to make the state
more energy efficient, reduce the use of
fossil fuels, and generate cleaner electricity.
Adoption of the 15 policy strategies in
this report would move New Mexico toward
meeting its goals of reducing global
warming pollution to 2000 levels by the
year 2012, to 10 percent below 2000 levels
by 2020 and to 75 percent below 2000 levels
by 2050. In the process, these strategies
would improve New Mexico’s energy security
and begin to make the technological
shifts necessary to reduce New Mexico’s
emissions of global warming pollution to
levels that do not have a harmful effect on
the climate.
Even with these strategies, however,
New Mexico will still need to take additional
steps to reduce its contribution to
global warming.
Global warming, caused by humaninduced
changes in climate, is a major
threat to New Mexico’s future.
• Since the beginning of the Industrial
Age, atmospheric concentrations of
carbon dioxide—the leading global
warming gas—have increased by
35 percent, a rate of increase
unprecedented in the last 20,000
years. Global average temperatures
increased by about 1° F during the
20th century, a greater rate of
increase than any in the last 1,000
years.
• The effects of global warming are
beginning to appear in New Mexico.
Average temperatures in the Southwest
have increased by 2 to 3° F in the last
century, accompanied by changing
precipitation patterns and other shifts.
And 2005 was the sixth-warmest year
in New Mexico since record-keeping
began in 1893.
• Average temperatures in the Southwest
are projected to increase by 4 to 7° F
by 2090, accompanied by changing
precipitation patterns. These changes
could lead to smaller snowpacks and
earlier snow melts—increasing the risk
of spring flooding, summer droughts
and more intense fire seasons.
Emissions of global warming pollution
are on the rise in New Mexico.
• Between 1990 and 2000, New Mexico’s
emissions of carbon dioxide from
energy use increased by 10 percent.
Electricity generation (40 percent) is
the largest source of global warming
pollution in the state, followed by
transportation (19 percent). Energy
use in homes, businesses and industry
contributes another 15 percent of the
state’s emissions. (See Fig. ES-1.)
• New Mexico is on a path that will lead
to dramatic increases in global warming
emissions over the next several decades.
According to U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) projections of
energy consumption growth, New
Mexico’s emissions of carbon dioxide
from energy use could increase by
nearly 50 percent over 2000 levels by
2020, with much of the increase
resulting from a projected build-out of
new coal-fired electric plants a decade
from now. Projections developed for
the New Mexico Environment Department
suggest that emissions of all
global warming gases in the state could
increase by 25 percent by 2020.
New Mexico could reduce its contribution
to global warming by adopting
15 key policy strategies and encouraging
other states in the region to do the same. There are numerous tools available to
New Mexico to reduce global warming
pollution. The following 15 strategies include
a mix of policies that deliver large
reductions in global warming pollution
with policies that take advantage of readily
available savings at low cost, or even net
economic benefit, to New Mexico.
The policies include:
Reducing Emissions from the
Transportation Sector
1. Adopting the clean cars program,
which will put increasing numbers of
hybrid-electric cars on New Mexico’s
roads and impose limits on vehicle
carbon dioxide emissions.
2. Requiring the sale of low-rolling
resistance replacement tires that
improve vehicle efficiency without
negatively affecting safety.
3. Establishing a revenue-neutral “feebate” program to reward the
purchase of more fuel-efficient
vehicles.
4. Requiring automobile insurers to
offer pay-as-you-drive automobile
insurance, in which insurance rates
are calculated by the mile, rewarding
those who drive less while potentially
reducing accidents.
5. Adopting policies that would reduce
growth in vehicle miles traveled
by cars and light trucks on New
Mexico’s highways, such as measures
to reduce sprawling development
and encourage the use of transit and
other transportation alternatives.
6. Establishing a renewable fuels
standard, such that a portion of
motor fuel, both gasoline and diesel,
comes from renewable sources.
Reducing Emissions from Homes,
Businesses and Industry
7. Developing and enforcing stronger
commercial and residential
building energy codes to improve
the energy efficiency of new construction
and thereby reduce
building-related energy costs and
global warming pollution.
8. Adopting appliance efficiency
standards for a series of residential
and commercial products, saving
money for consumers and reducing
electric sector emissions.
9. Reducing demand for electricity
generation through a tiered electricity
pricing structure, where
residential consumers are charged
higher rates for consuming more
energy.
10. Reducing energy use by expanding
electricity and natural gas energy
efficiency programs.
11. Expanding the use of energy-efficient
combined heat and power systems
in industry and commercial buildings.
Reducing Emissions from Electricity
Generation
12. Expanding and strengthening New
Mexico’s Renewable Portfolio
Standard so that 30 percent of all
electricity consumed in New
Mexico’s comes from new, clean,
renewable sources by 2020.
13. Dramatically increasing the installation
of solar energy systems to
achieve a goal of 50,000 solar homes
by 2020.
14. Preventing a dramatic increase in
emissions from coal-fired power
plants, using appropriate public
policy tools.
Reducing Emissions with Other
Strategies
15. Reducing government sector
emissions through “lead by example”
measures, such as purchasing
renewable power, cutting energy
consumption in new buildings in
half, increasing energy efficiency,
and purchasing more efficient
vehicles for state fleets.
Adoption of all 15 strategies would reduce
global warming pollution while improving
New Mexico’s energy efficiency and spurring the development of renewable
sources of energy. (See Table ES-1.)
Adoption of the 15 strategies presented
in this report would reduce New Mexico’s
carbon dioxide emissions by approximately
22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide
equivalent (MMTCO2e) below reference
case projections by 2020. This would
achieve 75 percent of the reductions New
Mexico would need to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions to 10 percent below 2000 levels
by 2020. (See Fig. ES-2, next page.)
However, New Mexico will still need to
reduce carbon dioxide pollution by a further
8.3 MMTCO2e and achieve parallel
reductions in emissions of other global
warming pollutants (which make up a quarter
of New Mexico’s total global warming
emissions) in order to achieve the goal of
reducing global warming pollution to 10
percent below 2000 levels by 2020.
For New Mexico to live up to its potential
of becoming a clean energy state and a
leader in the fight against global warming,
it is imperative that the state seize every
opportunity to begin reducing its emissions.
•
New Mexico should promptly adopt the measures in this report and
investigate other policy options to reduce global warming emissions,
especially with regard to reducing vehicle-miles traveled, addressing
projected increases in emissions from freight transport and industry,
and encouraging the development of non-fossil, non-nuclear sources of
energy.
• New Mexico should begin to plan for
the technological and other changes
that will be needed to achieve the
long-term goal of 75 percent reduction
in global warming emissions by 2050,
and the ultimate elimination of the
state’s contribution to the degradation
of the climate.
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