Posted on 11/04/2010 8:20:42 PM PDT by CedarDave
SANTA FE — The Environmental Improvement Board voted 4-3 Tuesday to adopt a controversial cap and trade plan for New Mexico to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions believed to be contributing to global warming.
The decision, supported by EIB chair Gay Dillingham, Abbas Ghassemi, John Horning and James Gollin, is another step in an initiative begun by Gov. Bill Richardson in 2005.
The plan was opposed by both candidates for governor, dozens of lawmakers, some cities like Farmington and utility and oil and gas groups which argued it would raise consumer prices, destroy thousands of jobs and put New Mexico at an economic disadvantage with other states. Richardson appointed all members of the EIB and the head of the Environment Department which proposed it.
"I am pleased that the EIB adopted the program I have worked so hard to develop," Richardson said in a news release from his Environment Department Tuesday night.
Opponents vowed to challenge the decision. "We remain convinced that comprehensive federal legislation is the only way to meaningfully reduce emissions, minimize costs to customers and to our economy, and not disadvantage any particular state," Public Service Company of New Mexico president Pat Vincent Collawn said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Martinez, taking questions from reporters, gave some indications about her immediate plans.
She said her staff is already researching the best way to reverse a decision made by the state's Environmental Improvement Board to include New Mexico in a regional cap-and-trade program.
The board voted Tuesday to include New Mexico in the program. Critics, including Martinez, have said the program would cost New Mexico revenues and jobs.
"I will do everything to research how it is we are able to put a moratorium or however it is we can put a repeal to that regulation," Martinez said.
Read more: ABQNews: UPDATED: Heather Wilson To Head Transition Team for Gov.-Elect Martinez
Pink.
NM list PING!
(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list. For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after watching a short video commercial.)
What is the best way to kill this disaster of a plan?
Ping!
Gee, I wonder why Farmington would oppose a cap-and-tax plan?
The commie ‘RAT environmental extremists are trying to get their last punches in before they are all thrown out into the street.
1. Request the board members resign and then appoint new ones. But she doesn’t need this controversy on the first day of her administration. However, the fact that the Democrat opposed it along with some of the press means there is not general approval. On the other hand Richardson demanded that all board and commission members, including university board of regents, resign when he took office 8 years ago. He then appointed his cronies and thus began the corruption of his administration.
2. Better to have the legislature adopt a law that NM can not unilaterally adopt a cap and trade program in the absence of a federal program.
3. The hearing refused to consider the scientific evidence against man-made global warming and had one witness from the UN climate panel who repeated the mantra that AGW was settled science. The Martinez administration may try to have the issue revisited with testimony from GW “skeptics” and open the who can of worms to examination. The board could then make a decision that the science is not settled and can be challenged leaving open any regulatory action until it is.
Thanks. I didn’t know how much power this panel had and you provided the answer...and then some.
You can’t let state boards overrule the Governor and legislature for sure.
#4) The board has administrative power and overturning a regulation means a court challenge in district court, usually with the brief including the words “the Board’s action was arbitrary and capricious and exceeded its legislative-granted authority.”
Are there enough votes in the new legislature to tighten that legislative-granted authority?
I don’t know; depends on how much the members hear from the businesses that will be affected. Also, those affected will likely try the courts first.
Obama drops plan to legislate global warming gases
Global Warming on Free Republic
I miss the old Territorial days.
Richardson and his cronies would have been laughed off the stage for suggesting something like this, then Tarred and Feathered and ridden out of the state on a rail for actually trying it.
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