It’s time to stop NM’s backdoor rulemakers

BY LARRY BEHRENS

It happened again recently, but don’t be shocked if you didn’t notice. That was by design.

If New Mexico families feel like major policy decisions are being made without their consent, it’s because they are.

Time and again, the Lujan Grisham administration has relied on a little-known panel of unelected bureaucrats — the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board — to impose sweeping mandates and higher costs that no elected official wants tied to their name.

Call the bureaucrats what they are: The Governor’s Green Enforcement Board.

Consider the track record. In 2022, the board adopted one of the most destructive oil and gas emissions rules in the country. Regardless of where you stand on the policy, the economic consequences for New Mexico’s most important industry were enormous and imposed by unelected regulators insulated from voters.

Then, in April 2024 this board voted 4-1 to impose California-style electric vehicle mandates, forcing a rapid transition to zero-emission vehicles allegedly starting this year.

That decision alone will reshape New Mexico’s auto market, limit consumer choice and drive up costs, all without a single statewide elected official having to cast a vote.

A poll conducted at the time noted that 60% of New Mexicans didn’t want an EV and 67% believed it would cost families more.

No wonder those on the ballot didn’t want to touch it.

Fast forward to this month, the same board approved the first air quality fee increase in decades.

Once again, the costs won’t be paid by bureaucrats in Santa Fe, they’ll be passed down to working families in the form of higher prices on everything from energy to goods and services.

This isn’t how representative government is supposed to work.

If these policies are so necessary, so urgent and so beneficial, then why

Larry Behrens

not let elected officials vote on them? Why hide behind a board that most New Mexicans couldn’t name if their paycheck depended on it?

The answer is simple: Because these policies will cost us more, they are politically unpopular.

The Environmental Improvement Board has become the governor’s green hammer, a tool to force through costly mandates and fee hikes while avoiding accountability. It allows politicians to claim credit with activists while dodging responsibility with voters.

That’s not leadership. That’s outsourcing the tough votes to people the public can’t remove.

New Mexicans deserve better. They deserve transparency. They deserve accountability. And most importantly, they deserve leaders willing to stand behind the policies they impose.

If a governor believes New Mexicans should be forced into electric vehicles, they should have to defend that position at the ballot box. If they believe higher fees are justified, they should explain why directly to the people paying them.

It’s time to end this system of backdoor governance.

The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board should be dismantled, and its authority returned to elected officials who answer to voters, not insulated appointees who are unaccountable to the people. If future governors want to push aggressive environmental policies, they should have the courage to do it themselves.

Until then, New Mexicans will keep paying the price for decisions they never had the chance to approve.

Larry Behrens is an energy expert and the communications director for Power The Future. You can follow him on X/ Twitter @larrybehrens.