By: Senators Candy Spence Ezzell, Larry Scott, & Ant Thornton
New Mexico’s Senate Bill 18, misleadingly titled “Clear Horizons,” is being sold as a bold environmental vision. In reality, it is one of the most economically destructive and scientifically disingenuous pieces of legislation the Legislature has seriously considered in years.
SB 18 mandates that New Mexico reach so-called “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This mandate is not just directed towards government operations, it also targets every sector of our economy: oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, small businesses, and even private citizens. It codifies MLG’s executive order from 2019 into permanent law and hands sweeping regulatory authority to unelected boards and agencies to decide how compliance is enforced, at what cost, and against whom.
This is not a plan; it is an unattainable mandate.
New Mexico’s economy is not Silicon Valley or Wall Street. It is powered by energy production, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and resource development. Oil and natural gas alone account for billions in state revenues every year, funding our schools, healthcare, infrastructure, and public safety. Entire communities depend on these industries for family-supporting jobs. SB 18 treats those livelihoods simply as collateral damage.
Supporters claim the bill will “drive innovation,” but innovation does not happen under rigid and punitive mandates that ignore cost, feasibility, and real-world constraints. SB 18 sets fixed emissions reduction targets without accounting for grid reliability, technology readiness, transmission capacity, water scarcity, or economic competitiveness. It assumes alternatives will magically appear (and manage to be affordable) simply because lawmakers demand it.
That is not how energy systems work. And it is not how economies grow.
Even more troubling, SB 18 includes expansive new oversight of large energy users, the very entities we need to attract in order to encourage new ventures in modern manufacturing, data centers, and industrial investment. By layering Renewable Portfolio Standard requirements, reporting mandates, audits, inspections, and the threat of forced shutdowns, the bill actively discourages the kind of capital-intensive projects New Mexico needs in order to diversify its economy.
Business owners and industry leaders have choices. Their investments are mobile. When policymakers make it harder and more expensive to operate here than in Texas, Arizona, or Utah, companies do not stay out of loyalty… they leave.
Agriculture, too, would be hit especially hard. Farmers and ranchers are already facing rising fuel costs, electricity prices, fertilizer expenses, and transportation challenges. SB 18 piles on additional regulatory pressure while offering no realistic path for compliance. You cannot mandate “zero emissions” from food production without either raising food prices dramatically or driving producers out of state. In reality, this bill would lead to both of these outcomes.
And New Mexico is left holding the bag.
Even if New Mexico somehow eliminated every ounce of carbon dioxide emitted within its borders, the impact on global emissions would be statistically insignificant. On an annual basis, China and India increase emissions by orders of magnitude more than what New Mexico produces. SB 18 would not change the climate, but it would absolutely change New Mexico’s economy, its workforce, and its fiscal stability.
That reality exposes SB 18 for what it truly is: a virtue signal disguised as policy.
Conservatives are not opposed to cleaner energy, innovation, or efficiency. New Mexico’s energy producers have already reduced emissions dramatically through technology, market forces, and common-sense regulation. Progress is happening without destroying jobs or state revenues.
What conservatives oppose is reckless policymaking that ignores science, economics, and human consequences in favor of political messaging.
SB 18 does exactly that. It gambles New Mexico’s economic future on an ideological experiment, with no clear cost controls, no credible enforcement framework, and no backup plan when industries leave and revenues collapse.
Clear horizons are built with practical solutions, not impossible mandates.