ProgressNow New Mexico launched a new series of digital advertisements this week to call attention to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s vetoes of climate-policy related bills earlier this year. The move comes after the governor appeared on a national energy summit stage and seemed to directly contradict herself when asked why she vetoed the climate action bills.
“The Governor campaigned on being a climate leader. In her first term we saw her follow through on taking bold action around methane emissions and some other issues, but vetoing the few small climate related bills that the legislature passed this year just isn’t the action of someone dedicated to tackling climate change,” said Lucas Herndon, Energy Policy Director for ProgressNow New Mexico.
The New Mexico Legislature included five different programs with tax incentives attached to them in their annual budget package this year. The governor used her line-item veto authority to remove those incentives from the overall budget, stating at the time that the package was “not sustainable” and overly big. However, when speaking at a Politico Energy summit last month, the Governor as asked specifically about vetoes again and stated the tax incentives were too small and “didn’t move the needle” enough.
During a recently broadcast TV interview Herndon was asked about the governor’s seemingly contradictory statements as to why she vetoed the climate bills. “We’re all a little baffled,” he said.
The new ads are being shared across digital platforms in New Mexico and call out the discrepancy between the Governor’s calls for climate action during her campaign and state of the state address and her then vetoing the climate bills. The campaign is set to run through the rest of the summer.