The nonprofit group that is pushing for a greenhouse gas emissions gap in New Mexico filed expert testimony with state regulators on Tuesday aimed at alleviating concerns that regulating such emissions would result in economic disaster for the state.
New Energy Economy filed the testimony a day after the state Environmental Improvement Board heard from dozens of supporters and critics of the group's petition.
Industry groups, utilities, a few lawmakers and others blasted the proposal on Monday, saying it would discourage companies from relocating to New Mexico and would push existing businesses and jobs to neighboring states where there is no cap.
Bruce Frederick, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which filed the petition on behalf of New Energy Economy, said Tuesday's filing contains a more specific proposal for a phased-in program that would require only electricity generators and the oil and natural gas industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 percent per year from 2010 levels.
Offsets as well as a limit on the amount companies would be required to spend to control emissions would help keep costs down, he said.
New Energy Economy initially petitioned the Environmental Improvement Board in December 2008 to impose a greenhouse gas emissions cap that would affect any business that emitted more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year. The group also advocated for reductions of 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Frederick said the revamped proposal should address critics' concerns.
"These recommended changes are going to show industry that this is not going to cost a lot, it's not going to raise consumer prices significantly at all and there will be regulatory flexibility," he said.
Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state's largest utility and a vocal opponent of the original proposal, plans to review the new recommendations and submit its own testimony in early May, said spokesman Don Brown.
Steve Michel, chief counsel for Western Resource Advocates' energy program, is among the experts who submitted testimony in favor of the proposed greenhouse gas emissions cap. He predicts that average electricity prices in New Mexico would increase less than 1 percent per year.
"That was the idea, to make this something that works and is not going to have anywhere near a severe economic impact on this state. Nobody is interested in that," Michel said.
Other testimony submitted by New Energy Economy includes that of a University of New Mexico climatologist, a Harvard public health physician and the lead attorney in a federal case against several energy-producing companies that are accused of contributing to global warming by emitting carbon dioxide emissions.
The testimony includes dozens of pages about the potential impacts of unchecked emissions and a changing climate, including more frequent heat waves, drought, disease outbreaks and higher incidences of respiratory diseases.
Dr. John Fogarty, a Santa Fe physician and president of New Energy Economy, said the state needs to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions because the federal government has failed to do so.
However, PNM and other utilities have argued that greenhouse gas emissions should be addressed on a national level and that limiting pollution from a sparsely populated state such as New Mexico would not go far in solving the overall problem.
"Climate change is a global problem, not something any one state can solve," Jim Ferland, who oversees operations for PNM, told the Environmental Improvement Board during Monday's hearing.
More hearings are planned this summer.
The board doesn't expect to make a decision until the fall.
