VIDEO: Congresswoman Stansbury Pushes to Diversify New Mexico’s Economy, Create Clean Energy Transition
VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/wf3s1YbOo6U
WASHINGTON – During a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources oversight hearing this morning that addressed fossil fuel emissions on public lands and their role in meeting U.S. climate goals, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) emphasized the need for immediate action to address the climate crisis, addressed misinformation on fossil fuel extraction, and highlighted the need for a just transition to renewable energy and diversify the state’s economy to provide for the well-being of New Mexico communities.
Currently, nearly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil fuels extracted from public lands, while our public lands absorb only about 15 percent of those emissions. In her remarks, Rep. Stansbury worked to correct misinformation pertaining to the relationship between oil and gas prices and supply and demand. Rep. Stansbury also addressed New Mexico’s economic dependency on oil and gas extraction, speaking to the need for sustainable jobs and other community resources to put our nation on a path to a just transition to renewable energy.
“We are literally at a tipping point,” said Rep. Stansbury. “The [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report that was released a few months ago told us that if we do not take action globally—across every sector of our society, on every continent of this planet to cut carbon emissions, we will cross a tipping point that will affect every community on this planet. So that means we have to address climate change on our public lands, in all of our industries, in our electricity sector, in our oil and gas sector, in our transportation sector—we don’t have a choice at this point because our planet is facing a global tipping point.”
Rep. Stansbury continued by questioning Senator Hamblen on economic diversification and community empowerment. “How do you see the long-term diversification of our economy? What are the major sectors that we can be moving in? How do we ground that work in really community-based economic development, so that we’re empowering communities to control their own destinies and their own futures as they’re imagining new local economies?”
Senator Hamblen responded, stating, “You and I both know how rural New Mexico is, and how we have populations that are getting ignored in this conversation about climate change, about diversifying our economy, and about making sure our rural communities thrive. And so, I feel that it’s really important that we can focus these new industries in those communities so they can flourish just as much as Albuquerque, or Las Cruces, or Santa Fe. And so, I think that’s really where we’re going to have to have those conversations, to make sure that we’re doing that and make sure those communities have a voice in that conversation.”