Conservation Voters New Mexico Statement on Destructive Reconciliation Bill
Moving in the U.S. House of Representatives
- [Washington, D.C.] – With a looming committee vote set for 1:00 AM ET Wednesday (May 21) to move the Republican-led reconciliation bill to the House floor, Conservation Voters New Mexico Chief Operating Officer Molly Taylor released the following statement:
“The reconciliation bill is extreme, and out of step with the needs of New Mexico families. It proposes to threaten and gut programs that directly benefit our rural communities, including clean energy investments, public lands, and emergency response. These very same programs are also popular across party lines and are fundamental for a diversified and stable economy.
In New Mexico, the federal clean energy funding on the chopping block has supported $15 billion in large-scale clean power generation and storage, helping to launch or expand renewable energy companies including Arcosa Wind, Maxeon Solar, ABB and GeoBrugg. We also received funding for workforce training programs, wildfire mitigation, forest management and community recovery, and resources for watershed restoration and resilience. Rural New Mexico received $70 million to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells. These investments are job creators for our communities, and protect the Land of Enchantment for future generations.
We urge all members of Congress to reject the reconciliation bill. A vote for the reconciliation package will directly harm our communities by cutting good energy and manufacturing jobs, raising home energy costs for Americans across the country, selling off our precious public lands to private interests, and saddling the states with a massive fiscal burden, all in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.”
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BACKGROUND
According to a new analysis of the Reconciliation bill, the bill would increase household energy costs by an average of $120 per year over the next 5 years and $230 per year in 10 years. This anti-environmental billionaire tax scam would also limit our ability to build new
power generation fast enough to meet rising electricity demands, and cost our economy more than 830,000 jobs in 2030.
A new Center for American Progress report shows that terminating almost all federal clean energy investments will increase electricity rates and raise the price of gasoline by between 25 cents and 37 cents per gallon, costing households more than $400 billion on energy over the next decade, including a $110 increase in household spending on electricity in 2026.
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CVNM is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization connecting the people of New Mexico to their political power to protect our air, land, water, wildlife and communities for a healthy Land of Enchantment. CVNM does this by mobilizing voters, winning elections, holding elected officials accountable, and advancing responsible public policies.