By Hannah Grover
An effort to essentially overturn rules requiring manufacturers to send increasing numbers of electric vehicles to New Mexico moved forward Thursday after the House Transportation, Public Works and Capital Improvements Committee voted 9-2 in favor of advancing it.
HB 270 would remove the authority of the New Mexico Environment Department, Environmental Improvement Board and other regulatory bodies, including local governments, to adopt or enforce rules intended to promote one type of vehicle over another based on energy source.
“This bill is about government values, where the government is trying to tell New Mexicans what vehicles they should be driving,” bill sponsor Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, said.
The rule does not require any dealership or resident to stock or purchase electric vehicles. What it does require is that manufacturers send electric vehicles to New Mexico.
Armstrong said the lack of charging infrastructure in rural parts of the state, including in areas where homes do not have access to electricity, makes it harder for residents to adopt electric vehicles.
“We are ready to sell EVs to anybody who wishes to purchase them. We just don’t need mandates limiting the choices,” Ken Ortiz, president of the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association, said.
From the Republican perspective, the rule represents the Environmental Improvement Board and the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board implementing regulations that could reduce the availability of internal-combustion engine vehicles.
“They’re appointed, they’re not elected,” Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, said.
Supporters of the rule say it has been hard for people who want electric vehicles to find them in New Mexico and that without the rule in place, the state risks falling behind in the adoption of electric vehicles. They say the rule is an important tool in addressing climate change and improving air quality in New Mexico.
Los Alamos resident Susan Barnes said when she was looking to buy an electric vehicle, she struggled to find one at dealerships in her area.
“I’ve had no difficulty charging my electric vehicle around the state and also in my community,” she said.
Other public commenters also said they had struggled to find electric vehicles at dealerships in New Mexico.
JoAnna Strother, senior director of advocacy for the American Lung Association, said rules that promote the adoption of electric vehicles are important tools to protect public health.
“Transportation pollution is a public health problem in New Mexico, and it disproportionately impacts our lower income communities, communities of color, children, elders and anyone with respiratory conditions like asthma,” she said. “Zero emission cars and trucks are the fastest way to curb the transportation sector’s toxic air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.”
HB 270 now heads to the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Please show data proving that transportation is 1) a public health problem, and 2) disproportionately impacts those with low incomes or minority ethnicity. I’ve seen this claim made several times now, but there is no evidence to support the claim. Other than the fact that we live in NM and people reflexively make these claims.
I vote no to this. It is my business what kind of car I drive. Too much control. We have numerous homes without electricity, large areas of NM without it across our deserts. NO!
As a New Mexico resident struggling with COPD, I favor living in a place with less carbon and toxic fumes floating in the air. There are many challenges I face living close to the Albuquerque International Airport where jet fuel heavily intoxicates our air quality.
Many mitigations have been suggested such as increasing EVs as a choice of travel but one of my favorites is the sequestration of carbon either through the means of technology or natural resources, such as cannabis which has the power to filter our air and replenish it with oxygen.
I suggest that we support laws that support the increased growth of cannabis for the increased sequestration of carbon in New Mexico, plus any honest attempt to make EVs more affordable and produce more electric charging stations in rural towns where thete are none.