Suing on Behalf of Global Warming Groupthink

One of the first actions taken by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (I really enjoy writing that) upon assuming office was to fire the entire unelected former-governor appointed Environmental Improvement Board. In a statement released by the Governor’s office, the panel was disbanded because of its anti-business policies. In the summer and fall 2010, the EIB conducted global warming hearings which resulted in proposed rules restricting carbon dioxide in the state. The formal announcement by the EIB in regards to the imposition of these restrictions came on Election Day, conveniently avoiding making their decrees an election issue for democrat Diane Denish.

In addition to disbanding the EIB, Governor Martinez halted publication of the regulations that resulted from the unelected board’s hearings. In response a nonprofit group named the New Energy Economy which lobbied the EIB in support of carbon regulation has filed a lawsuit against the Governor claiming that she circumvented the law in stopping the publication of the regulations. The end goal of the New Energy Economy is to force the Governor and the state’s environment department to publish and bind businesses to the new regulations by judicial fiat.

The first problem with these regulations is that they were created by unelected regulators sitting on an appointed board. The EIB has been in the news for their member’s problems with conflicting interests, for example, the last EIB chair served while at the same time lobbying for environmental organizations. The state legislature, which is charged with actually making laws, did not pursue this path for very good reasons which is why this unelected board, acting on behalf of environmental zealots decided to sidestep them.

The most important problem with these regulations was clearly identified by the Governor, they’re anti-business. The energy and petroleum industry is incredibly important to the state of New Mexico and absolutely vital to the Northwest and Southeast portions of the state. This industry is one of the last truly productive entities in a state that is entirely too reliant on the public sector. Our state has more state employees per resident than almost every other US state. There are two national laboratories and several military bases and is littered with many other federal offices. It is absurd to impose draconian regulations on the private sector in New Mexico based on closed hearings that were held by and with the global-warming obsessed. Man-made climate change is far from settled science and there are many more substances which contribute to it than carbon dioxide. It will destroy the areas of the state to which the energy and petroleum industries are indispensable and is irresponsible on the basis of a hypothesis of group thinkers who have no experience in the real world.

Governor Martinez faced a mess upon taking over from Bill Richardson including unelected boards such as the EIB which were designed to help Richardson’s friends and to circumvent the state legislature. The Governor should be lauded for making the decisions necessary to bring the state’s budget into line and to make our state a more hospitable environment for responsible businesses. The courts should dismiss the New Energy Economy’s lawsuit.